Worldwide South Louisiana Terms
Just took my Saturday morning bike ride throughout some of the older, “historic” areas of N’Awlins.
Watching ships, ferries, & tugs on their routes, I recalled that two of the most popular terms which cross linguistic & international boundaries came from that part of our old port.
“DIXIE” has come to be synonymous with the South, especially the central deep South. Many wrongly believe the term came from the Civil War; or, as we here refer to it, “The War of Yankee Aggression”.
Way back, a century or more before those tragic events, as pioneers, colonialists, farmers, mountain men, trappers, & traders pushed westward, to & then through St. Louis, there were no roads. Louisiana, especially the “Isle d’Orleans” was, alternatively, a French or Spanish colonial city. There was no “national currency”; but value was in precious metal coinage or promissory “banknotes”. The “notes” issued by the Bank of New Orleans carried the notations “DIX” (French for TEN) in opposite corners; the other corners were marked “10”, meaning ten units of currency.
Prior to the days of large river steamboats, and for some time afterwards, many crops & goods were carried downriver from the center of the continent on large rafts made of dried tree trunks. Being clumsy, current-carried vessels, these only went one way, downriver. After the cargos were sold to port merchants or consigned to shippers, the rafts were sold for lumber.
Those who had accompanied the cargos on the rafts were paid in Bank of N.O. “notes”. Mostly of Scotch or English origins, those men spoke no French. So, the French “DIX”, meaning TEN was mispronounced in English, (the correct would have been “DEEE”).
Their annual adventurous trips to New Orleans became known as “Getting one’s Dixies”, later shortened to “Going to Dixie”.
Another, even more common term in most languages today is the ubiquitous “OK”, meaning agreement or that all is well.
The sailing ships of yore were prone to many types of accident and were frequently “lost at sea”, sunk, or crashed onto reefs; not to mention piracy losses. A sort of insurance, or “risk pool” evolved for merchant shippers, in which each of several ships was owned by merchant associations. Each would have a portion of the cargo space, usually 1/9 or 1/10, so that if one ship were lost, each merchant lost only that portion of the cargo, rather than losing everything.
A wharf or pier, especially one running parallel to the bank, is known in French as a “Quai”, pronounced as “KAY”. One French term to indicate where something is located is “Au”, meaning at, very near, or with. "Au" sounds like “O”, or “Oh”.
Thus, when one’s ship was safely in port and the cargo had been offloaded into the wharf warehouses, the word would go out to members that “Les toutes sont Au Quai”; which was occasion for the members to meet for a little “Au Quai” celebration in the chandler’s office or a port-side tavern.
This was shortened to the simple “Au Quai”, giving us the worldwide term of today; “OK”.
Good Morning,
leVieux
Just took my Saturday morning bike ride throughout some of the older, “historic” areas of N’Awlins.
Watching ships, ferries, & tugs on their routes, I recalled that two of the most popular terms which cross linguistic & international boundaries came from that part of our old port.
“DIXIE” has come to be synonymous with the South, especially the central deep South. Many wrongly believe the term came from the Civil War; or, as we here refer to it, “The War of Yankee Aggression”.
Way back, a century or more before those tragic events, as pioneers, colonialists, farmers, mountain men, trappers, & traders pushed westward, to & then through St. Louis, there were no roads. Louisiana, especially the “Isle d’Orleans” was, alternatively, a French or Spanish colonial city. There was no “national currency”; but value was in precious metal coinage or promissory “banknotes”. The “notes” issued by the Bank of New Orleans carried the notations “DIX” (French for TEN) in opposite corners; the other corners were marked “10”, meaning ten units of currency.
Prior to the days of large river steamboats, and for some time afterwards, many crops & goods were carried downriver from the center of the continent on large rafts made of dried tree trunks. Being clumsy, current-carried vessels, these only went one way, downriver. After the cargos were sold to port merchants or consigned to shippers, the rafts were sold for lumber.
Those who had accompanied the cargos on the rafts were paid in Bank of N.O. “notes”. Mostly of Scotch or English origins, those men spoke no French. So, the French “DIX”, meaning TEN was mispronounced in English, (the correct would have been “DEEE”).
Their annual adventurous trips to New Orleans became known as “Getting one’s Dixies”, later shortened to “Going to Dixie”.
Another, even more common term in most languages today is the ubiquitous “OK”, meaning agreement or that all is well.
The sailing ships of yore were prone to many types of accident and were frequently “lost at sea”, sunk, or crashed onto reefs; not to mention piracy losses. A sort of insurance, or “risk pool” evolved for merchant shippers, in which each of several ships was owned by merchant associations. Each would have a portion of the cargo space, usually 1/9 or 1/10, so that if one ship were lost, each merchant lost only that portion of the cargo, rather than losing everything.
A wharf or pier, especially one running parallel to the bank, is known in French as a “Quai”, pronounced as “KAY”. One French term to indicate where something is located is “Au”, meaning at, very near, or with. "Au" sounds like “O”, or “Oh”.
Thus, when one’s ship was safely in port and the cargo had been offloaded into the wharf warehouses, the word would go out to members that “Les toutes sont Au Quai”; which was occasion for the members to meet for a little “Au Quai” celebration in the chandler’s office or a port-side tavern.
This was shortened to the simple “Au Quai”, giving us the worldwide term of today; “OK”.
Good Morning,
leVieux
