Происхождение фразы «down cellar behind the axe» как вежливого отписывания в Новой Англии

Megan from Savannah, Georgia, is curious about a phrase her father used: down cellar behind the axe, a phrase whose meaning she never quite understood. Down cellar, meaning “down in the cellar,” is common in New England and the Canadian Maritimes. As Megan remembers it, down cellar behind the axe was a gently dismissive answer to a question about the whereabouts of someone or something. Other versions of this phrase include down cellar behind or in many things: the fish bowl, the fish barrels, the furnace, a teacup, the pig’s barrel, the piano, the ax and the teacup, the cider barrel, the coal bin, the potato barrel, the nail kegs, and others. Someone who is asked about another person’s whereabouts might respond with the even more nonsensical phrase, He’s down cellar tying the dog loose. Down cellar behind the ax dates to the early 1800s. Versions of this expression are well documented in Prince Edward Island Sayings (Bookshop|Amazon), and author Stephen King, a Mainer, uses several in his books. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““Down Cellar Behind the Axe” as a Dismissive New England Reply” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Megan. I am calling from Savannah, Georgia. Hi, Megan. Welcome to the program. Thanks. I wanted to ask you guys about a weird phrase that I heard growing up and I had the chance to grill my parents about it when they were visiting recently. Down cellar behind the axe. Down cellar behind the axe. So who said this? Dad? Mostly dad when I was little and it never made any sense to me. What would you be doing when he said it? I can’t remember. I was pretty little. I just remember we did have a weird basement that had you know, like stone it was a stone foundation and and a dirt floor. And so the the whole image was very scary. Yeah, I imagine. Somebody down there with an axe. But but I don’t know. I don’t really remember what I thought it meant. Was was your dad Martha knows what I’m about to ask, was you? I do. Dad from New England. So he was not, but his dad and granddad were very much old New England. So yeah, I’m I’m certain that that’s where he picked it up. Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense because down seller is an expression that you hear mostly in New England and the Canadian Maritimes, down cellar meaning down in the cellar. It’s what what’s sometimes called a bear noun or a bare locative, where you leave the words, leave out the words between the adverb and the noun like on campus or in church or in studio. There are different versions of this like down cellar behind the fish barrels or down cellar behind the fish bowl or down cellar in a teacup. I’ve also read down cellar behind the axe and the teacup. Yeah, it’s a behind the furnace, cider barrel, coal bin, pigs barrel, potato barrel, piano, nail kegs. And then there’s my favorite version, down cellar tying the dog loose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you might ask, you know, some somebody comes over to your house and you say to the wife, Where’s your husband? And she just says, Oh, he’s down cellar tying the dog loose you know, it’s just like she doesn’t know. That’s what my dad remembers and my mom too as they grew older that it sort of morphed into a lightly dismissive, not mean, but sort of dismiss you know, you sort of who knows with them. Right. But he does remember his grandparent talking about it meaning that mom was doing drudge work. Oh, interesting. That that was a s a short hand for saying like, well she’s doing the chores. You know, and down cellar itself in the mid eighteen hundreds, ’cause it’s it’s quite old to say down cellar instead of down in the cellar, often was about hiding things, bootlegging for example. And one of my favorite uses that I found was some eighteen seventy five and it it says it turns out to be a solemn fact that a Baltimore woman gave birth to four children a few weeks ago and her husband has been hiding down cellar ever since. And so it’s it’s very typical though of the early uses where it really was about this distant dirty place that you didn’t usually go where something might be stowed away and not be seen. All right. And 1875 is the earliest. Yeah, early 1800s. Well, and if you really want to get a good a good dose of this expression and its variance, the the book Prince Edward Island Sayings, P E I sayings is fantastic and has a really good entry on this. Okay, great. And also Stephen King, the writer, uses variations on this because he’s a maner. You know, he’s from New England. So it’s part of his stock phrases.maz Aing. Thank you so much. Well, yeah, share that with your family and see what they say. I sure will. I definitely will. Thanks so much for calling. Thank you. Take care, Megan. You too. Bye-bye. You can find all of our past episodes and one zillion ways to reach us on our website at waywordradio.org.