phrase origins

Stoved up. Have you ever been?

This isn't an origin, but a meaning from the Urban Dictionary

stove up:
stove up
Swollen and badly bruised. Phrase primarily in rural, folk or country use in the USA. Often used to refer to an eye that is so swollen and black (usually due to a fist punch), it appears closed over.

On COPS, they showed a woman who'd been beaten up by her boyfriend; her face was all stove up.




me/debbie
and I thought Lisa might enjoy this one...(as her husband Dennis is a chiropracter )this is more of what we all think when we think of being "Stoved up"

“Hey, Doc, I’m sore as a risin’ rat chear.” This comment was my introduction to the South nearly 25 years ago as a young chiropractor originally from California now practicing in the peach and pecan country of middle Georgia. One of my very first patients, a nice little ol’ Southern lady from Perry, pointing to her low back complained to me in a language I’d never heard before. I had to excuse myself to ask my receptionist, another Southerner, to tell me what she meant.

“Her back hurts,” she simply explained to me matter-of-factly with a queried look, as if any good Southerner should know. “A ‘risin’ is like a boil.”

“Okay,” I replied, a bit embarrassed, thinking to myself I’m in deep trouble if I can’t understand my patients. After all, the true language is that which is spoken, not what is taught in classrooms as I learned as an undergrad at UC Berkeley years ago.

I returned to the consultation room looking quite assured now that I knew what she meant. “So, how long has it been sore as a risin’?” I asked, posing as if I understood exactly her Southern dialect. Just when I thought we were talking the same language, she said, “I’ve been all stoved up over two weeks now.”

Bewildered once again, I excused myself and went back to my receptionist with this new term, “all stoved up.” She explained, “That means she’s stiff and sore too.” It’s nice having a good interpreter when you need one.

I went back into the room certain that I knew her problem, only to be asked, “Did I slip a disc, doctor? Or maybe I just pulled a leader, uh?” It was obvious she was very confused, but typical for many folks who don’t understand the real cause of most back pain problems. This was my first introduction to the South and the problems I faced as a chiropractor trying to explain spinal care to the uninformed, and it’s a challenge I’ve faced for over 25 years now.

In that time, I’ve found that most Southerners are confused about many aspects of health, especially the burgeoning natural health care issues like chiropractic, nutrition, exercise, and supplements.



me/debbie:

but then....there is this one too:

My partner and I have been trying to track down the etymology of the
> expression "all stove up" which her father used to describe someone who's very hurt,
> as in "he's all stove up." Her father was born on the stake plains of east
> Texas and his father took part in some of the last great cross-country cattle
> drives as a cowboy for one of the large ranches, possibly the King Ranch. Our
> best guess is that the expression was born when a cowboy was so injured he
> couldn't do any kind of work and had to just rest by the camp stove until he was
> hopefully better. It's logical, I suppose, but is it right?




me/debbie:

and another one .....

Dick Ahlborn: Well, I'd like to ask you one other question. Could you tell the difference between a buckaroo and a farmer, just by walking down the street?
Pedroli: Yeah, you could always tell the difference.
Ahlborn: How?
Pedroli: The way he walked. Buckaroo was generally stoved up from sittin' on a horse so damn long. The farmer, he was generally stoved up from goin' over the clods and the dirt followin' the plow.