| 释义 |
salt river U.S.
[salt a.1]
†1. A river which is tidal a considerable distance from its mouth. Obs.
1659Early Rec. Providence, Rhode Island (1892) I. 97 A percell of land..lieth upon the salt River at the further-most side of the towne boundes. 1704Ibid. (1894) V. 224 Sd Cove..lieth adjoyneing to the North side of the salt River called Pautuckett. 1791W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina i. iv. 29 Numerous small rivers and their branches: these they call salt rivers, because the tides flow near to their sources.
2. a. The name of a river (perh. one in Kentucky) used as attrib. phr. to designate the inhabitants of the American backwoods region, esp. with reference to their uncultivated manner of speech. Also applied to the speech, etc., of these people. Now only Hist.
1828Western Intelligencer (Hamilton, Ohio) 26 Dec. 1/4 A ‘Salt River Roarer’. One of these two fisted backwoodsmen, ‘half horse, half alligator, and a little touched with the snapping turtle’. 1835Knickerbocker V. 403 They [sc. speeches in Congress] are chiefly made up of extracts from the common school collection of lessons for reading and speaking, sprinkled with scraps of dog-Latin, and a sort of patois, called Salt-river roaring. 1835T. Flint in Athenæum July 511/2 There is, in fact, a well-known rivalry between the collectors of the Downing dialect of New England, and the Crocket or Salt River dialect of the South and West. 1947J. Conroy Midland Humor p. x, The ring-tailed roarers and Salt River screamers of the half-horse and half-alligator breed, both male and female, were ordinarily combinations of physical might and mother wit which enabled them to outsmart invaders from other regions.
b. fig. In slang phr. to row (someone) up Salt River and varr., to defeat (a political opponent); to overcome, send to oblivion. Also with intransitive vb., to be defeated or overcome, to go to oblivion; to get drunk. Freq. in allusive and proverbial uses. Now rare.
The simplest of the numerous explanations offered for this usage is that which connects it with sense 2 a; see H. Sperber and J. N. Tidwell in Amer. Speech (1951) XXVI. 241–7
1828Reg. Deb. Congress U.S. 2 Feb. 1341 But, sir, I will venture to say this, that, in playing this game, if the Secretary of State is not influenced by the same courtesy which governed the courtiers of the great Frederick, never to beat the monarch at chess, that he could give the President twenty-nine, and as they say in Kentucky, ‘row him up salt river’. 1830Cincinnati Chron. 2 Jan. 1/2 He replied he didn't ‘smoak me’, and unless I cut cable in short order, he'd roar me up salt river. 1832J. K. Paulding Westward Ho! I. ix. 77 See if I don't row you up Salt River before you are many days older. 1832Spirit of Times 28 Apr. 3/1 He ‘rowed’ Stanberry ‘up a salt creek’, and is now being tried by the House of Representatives for his unlucky propensity. 1832Washington (Ohio) Herald 17 Nov. 3/4 The Jackson boys of Ohio have been enabled to give them another ride ‘up Salt River’. 1835D. Crockett Tour down East 46 [Judge Clayton] made a speech that fairly made the tumblers hop. He rowed the Tories up and over Salt river. 1838Bentley's Misc. IV. 588, I can drink till the world gets too old to move. While another man rows up Salt River, I'm only putting the fire out in the forest. Ibid., Rowing up Salt River is a slang term for getting intoxicated. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. 279 To Row up Salt River, is a common phrase, used generally to signify political defeat. The distance to which a party is rowed up Salt river depends entirely upon the magnitude of the majority against its candidates. 1852Chicago Democrat 11 Nov., One Thomas Holt, lately a clerk in The Chicago Post Office, when last seen,..was on his way up ‘Salt River’ with Gen. Scott. 1855Haliburton Nat. & H. Nature I. 27 We rowed him to the very head waters of Salt River in no time. 1880in J. C. Andrews Pittsburgh Post Gaz. (1936) xvi. 218 For Salt River—The River Boat Democracy left its Wharf Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1880 bound up Salt River in search of the late lamented Samuel J. Tilden. 1941L. D. Baldwin Keelboat Age on Western Waters 97 It'd shore be harder'n rowin' up Salt River to find a cleverer parcel o' fellers 'n them keelers. |