Etymological question -- "waller" a hole (2024 Update)

Tim Wescott fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Actually, Tim, 'waller a hole' is a regional dialectic of "wallow a hole".

And that comes from the noun 'wallow' which is shallow hole (usually in which animals -typically pigs- like to bathe for fun or profit.

So, to "wallow a hole" means to just dig one out irregularly, as would a pig trying to make a bathing hole.

LLoyd

I had considered the "wallow" connection but didn't make the mental leap from there to "make a hole as if you're a pig".

It makes perfect sense. And the folks in question would definitely turn "wallow" into "waller" -- I just didn't want to inaccurize the word by trying to "clean it up".

So -- do you know anyone else that uses the term?

Don't know the exact etymology but I've heard it often enough. I imagine it comes from "wallow", like wallowing around in a mud hole. And because mud holes are rarely round they must be "wallered, er, wallowed, out". Eric

Actually Lloyd , the term "waller a hole out" is in common usage both in the northern Utahaha area where I grew up and in west Tennessee where we've lived the last 30 years or so , also in the southern Ozarks where I now live .

Tim Wescott fired this volley in news:4sCdnYfd7pOp snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Pretty much everywhere in the deep South, you'll hear it used. And although the Mason-Dixon line might disagree, I'd include 'deep South' to mean just about anything south of southern Ohio on down.

Lloyd

"Terry Coombs" fired this volley in news:gHdGu.11852$ snipped-for-privacy@fx04.iad:

How does that disagree with what I said. "Regional" can cover a lot of regions.

If someone has any sort of drawl, they're likely to 1) come from a region where most folks have one, too, and 2) are likely to use that term instead of "wallow".

LLoyd

Ah , but Utahaha is famous for it's "neutral" accent . And yet ... I'd guess dialectic oddities can be spread out over a number of geographic locales , depends on just where the "settlers" in a particular region came from .

Straying a little from waller....not born here but been in GA many, many y ears. Two terms my northern transplant friends enjoy pointing out are use o f "fixing" and "mash". One meaning someone who had been made fun of for the ir drawl might be "fixin'" to apply a severe thrashing and the other refers to pushing the accelerator or selecting a floor on the elevator menu.....m ash the gas or mash the button. I know of two guys, one from Kentucky and t he other from West Virginia....both use "postes" and "colyums" when talking about the plural of a wood post and columns.

================ I never quite understood the meaning of ":feature".

I think it may be a universal term. I know it was commonly used by USAF aircraft sheetmetal men on several bases in several countries :-)

Commonly used when one drilled several rivet holes and after driving the first rivet discovered that the holes didn't perfectly line up and you can't get the remaining rivets in the holes, so you waller the holes out a bit.

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote in news:XnsA2C4AA58D44A6lloydspmindspringcom@216.168.3.70:

I've heard it often enough in Indianapolis to know what it means. So it's not just the South.

I've heard it -- though usually pronounced as "wallowed" rather than "wallered". And I usually interpret it as tilting an electric drill in various directions while running so the hole is made a little larger.

The pronunciation is likely influenced by regional artifacts. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

I have heard the term "wallered out" quite a bit. I am an ASE certified mechanic of 11 years and I have a degree in Automotive Technology (so not shade tree lol). I refrain from using it because I do not want to sound like a redneck. I think it might be more of a dialect-related slang than an actual word. Here in Missouri, people know what it means. I used it recently: "Your door latch mechanism has become wallered out. This is causing too much free play in the latch when the door is closed..."

It is also known in the High Plains region, anyway; I'd guess most all of the farm country would be reasonably common but that's only from having been familiar to me since childhood on a farm in SW KS. Certainly then was also known in E TN while were there.

I have always presumed it's a bastardization/colloquialism derived from _wallow_

I grew up in Northern Illinois and have lived in various northern places in the US. We always used the term, wallered, to talk about what happen when you have enlarged a hole, like for a bold that uses an allen wrench, that has become worn with usage and the allen wrench slips. Same thing for Phillips head screw and to a lesser extent, slot head screws.

It was a common term when I was in the Air Force, the sheetmetal guys used to say things like "just waller out the hole till it fits", meaning to twist the drill around to make it cut a larger hole.

I always assumed that it was a corruption of the word "wallow" which can mean "an indolent or clumsy rolling about".

Definitely from the word "wallow".

A hog wallow or a hippo wallow are both sloppy holes, enlarged by "wallerin" around"

I'm with JohnB on this one.

Wallow as a noun: a puddle where animals go to wallow an >

gummer arsch has wallered his own hole quite a lot the last few years.