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Date Posted: 08:06:03 06/26/06 Mon
Author: Ye Editor
Author Host/IP: dialup-4.167.2.131.Dial1.Houston1.Level3.net / 4.167.2.131
Subject: epizootics

One of the morning's e-mail exchanges:

----Original Message Follows----
From: L. Cash - leycash@......
To: bethjacks@hotmail.com
Subject: Southern word
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 22:57:20 -0700

Dear Ms. Jacks:
I just discovered your website and enjoy it very much.
I stumbled across it while searching, in vain thus far,
for a word my Mother used.

I do not know how she spelled it, but phonetically it
is "kazootics".

She would say "I have the kazootics" to mean she
wasn't feeling "up to snuff" nor "right as rain".

I think having the kazootics is roughly synonymous
with "I have the blues", or maybe more like "I'm a
little off my feed, under the weather etc".

Have you heard of this word?

I was raised in Georgia, but moved to California
many years ago. My children were raised in California,
and when I told my 25 year old daughter of her
grandmother's expression, we started the hunt on
the internet. We are either spelling the word
incorrectly (we have tried many variations) or it
was something my Mother made up. I'm hoping you can
help us!

She also used several notable expressions:

1. "Fine as frog hair" in response to "How you doing today"
2. "Fine as snuff and not half as dusty" also in response to "How you doing today"
3. "If you'll do that for me I'll give you a yankee dime".
After I did the chore she'd give me a kiss on the cheek.
That kiss was the "yankee dime".
4. Dragon flies were "snake doctors".

My Daddy used a number of expressions, too, but I can
only remember the ones unfit to print, or which I've
read elsewhere on your website.

Thank you for any light you can shed on "kazootics".

L. Cash
Yucaipa, California USA
______________________________________________________

Greetings,

This is one I can answer!

The word you're referring to is "epizootics,"
meaning "study of epidemic animal diseases."
Our Southern mamas and daddies corrupted this
term, using "epizootics" to mean "feeling poorly."
Perhaps your mother further corrupted the word and
said "kazootics."

Go to Google. In the search box, type these two words:
epizootics slang

There are a number of links to pages that explain
this Southern expression.

Here's the URL to one: http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/30653

Hope this helps -- and do visit us again soon!

Ye Editor
http://www.usadeepsouth.com

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