Word of the Week – Inspired by Verbie Miller

I had the pleasure of meeting an elderly woman from the community a few weeks ago. She wrote down a list of old Amish words that are not used much anymore by the younger generation. She told me a few stories that are associated with her memory of these words. Some of these words are spelled in English using her spelling as she wrote it out.

blie – lead

swevel – sulpher

koulich – lime

hoy shreck – Grass hopper

(translated literally this is hay scare) So as you can see the name was given to the animal that jumped when walking through the hay field. I personally had never heard this name before.

flutter misly – bat (flutter mouse when translated literally)

fenci misly – chipmunk (fence mouse when translated literally)

grundt misly – mole (ground/dirt mouse when translated literally)

sumer fagly – butterfly (summer bird)

mushtah – pattern (pattern used for sewing clothes etc)