Who is the Ornery American?

Friday, June 27th, 2003

I can’t believe I didn’t know where “ornery” came from. The Ornery American explains:

The word “ornery” began as “ordinary.” In the days when you were either of the “gentle” class or merely “ordinary,” parents would say to their stubborn children when they refused to do as they were told, “Don’t be so ordin’ry.”

Naturally, I now need to know where high falutin’ comes from. According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

H.L. Mencken, in his famous book The American Language, mentions highfalutin as an example of the many native U.S. words coined during the 19th-century period of vigorous growth. Although highfalutin is characteristic of American folk speech, it is not a true regionalism because it has always occurred in all regions of the country, with its use and popularity spurred by its appearance in print. The origin of highfalutin, like that of many folk expressions, is obscure. It has been suggested that the second element, ‘falutin, comes from the verb flute — hence high-fluting, a comical indictment of people who think too highly of themselves.

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