Pretty Some

If you spend time with O'cockers you will very soon hear the words "pretty some" or "hot some" or similar expressions. "Some" used after an adjective (usually of one or two syllables) is equivalent to using "very" before the adjective. So, "pretty some" means "very pretty"; "hot some" means "very hot," etc.

I have never heard these expressions anywhere but on Ocracoke Island. I was surprised a few nights ago, as Lachlan, David, and I were watching a vintage episode of the Andy Griffith Show, when I heard Andy say to Aunt Bea, "...you'll have to hurry some" (from "The Pickle Story").

I did a little Internet research and discovered a number of incidents of this expression from many years ago. Here are three:

["...Y]ou'll have to hurry some, Jerry, for your boss just crossed the line...." Border Incident by James W. English, a story published in Boy's Life, Nov. 1946

"You'll have to hurry some to be anywhere by morning." Pelican Pool, a Novel by Sydney De Loghe, 1917

"You'll have to hurry some," she panted, as she held a struggling leg imprisoned under each arm." The Desert and Mrs. Ajax by Edward Moffat, 1914

Of course, Ocracoke natives use "some" almost exclusively with adjectives, and "hurry" is a verb...but it wouldn't totally surprise me to hear an O'cocker telling another person he would have to "hurry some." 

Keep your ears open when you are in the village. Eventually you will hear someone remark about something that's maybe "sweet some," or "soft some," or "pretty some."

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is a gallery of photos of fences on Howard Street and Lawton Lane. To go directly to the this month's Newsletter click here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news092112.htm.