Copy of `Glossary of American Mountain Men Terms`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

Glossary of American Mountain Men Terms Category: History and Culture > American History Date & country: 11/09/2007, USA Words: 290

Airline
The shortest and straightest line between two points. This term was in use long before the invention of aircraft.

Aparejo
A large, padded packsaddle designed to handle awkward, heavy loads. Very likely the first type of packsaddle, Unlike the sawbuck, panniers cannot be handled with this saddle.

Apishemore
A saddle pad, often made of hair.

Appalos
An early camp food made by skewering alternate pieces of lean meat and fat on a sharpened stick and roasting over a low fire. When it was possible to get them, pieces of potato or vegetable, were intermixed with the fat and the meat. This method of cooking was much used by many tribes of Indians, as well as the Mountain Men.

Arkansas Toothpick
A large, pointed dagger used mostly by river men.

As The Crow Flies
See 'Airline'

Aux Aliments Du Pays
French for 'nourishment of the land'. All the free trappers and many engages were required to live 'aux aliments du pays', surviving by using the provisions of nature.

Avant Courier
A French word meaning 'scout'. This word was used by both voyageurs and mountain men.

Awerdenty
Whiskey.

Ball
Bullet. (The actual projectile.)

Bark On, He Has The
Said of a courageous person.

Bark To
To skin an animal. To scalp a man. a squirrel by shooting the tree bark from under him.

Beam
A fallen tree used for fleshing hides. This was also called a graining beam or a fleshing beam.

Bear Pen
A type of trap in which the fall acts as a lid over a pen, thereby catching the animal alive.

Bee Line
See 'Airline'.

Big Fifty
The .50 caliber Sharps rifle used by the buffalo hunter.

Bitch
A lamp made by filling a tin cup with bear or other animal fat, then inserting a twisted rag or piece of cotton rope to act as a wick.

Blackbird Storm
An unexpected cold storm in late spring.

Blanc Bec
A term used by voyageurs for a new man who had yet to travel the Missouri past the Platte River. As with many voyageur terms, this was later adopted by some Mountain Men with much the same meaning.

Bois De Vache
Buffalo chips used as fuel.

Bone Picker
A despised human scavenger who hunted for, and sold, the bones of dead animals, mostly buffalo.

Booshway
The leader of a party of mountain men. The word comes from the French 'bourgeois', used by the voyageurs.

Boschloper
See 'Bossloper'.

Bossloper
A trapper or hunter

Boudins
The real treat of the mountain man. A buffalo gut containing chyme, which was cut into lengths about 24 inches long and roasted before a fire until crisp and sizzling.

Breed
A person of Indian and White blood. A half-breed.

Brigade
A keelboat crew.

Buckskin
Tanned deerskin from which much of the clothing of the Indian and mountain man was made. If Indian tanned, buckskin was usually a very light dolor, often almost white. Darker color was usually obtained by smoking the skin over an open fire.

Buffalo Boat
A boat made of raw buffalo skins, much used by traders. This boat differed from the Bull Boat in that it was larger and had a normal boat shape.

Buffalo Chip
Buffalo manure, dried and used as fuel.

Buffalo Cider
The fluid found in the stomach of the buffalo. Used by both mountain men and Indians to quench thirst.

Buffalo Dance
An Indian dance used to insure success on a buffalo hunt.

Buffalo Gun
See 'Big Fifty'.

Buffalo Lick
A natural saltlick used by buffalo and other game animals. Usually a very good place to find game.

Buffalo Range
Any wide-open feeding area used by buffalo.

Buffalo Robe
The skin of the buffalo, tanned with the hair on. Used by traders, Indians, and mountain men as ground covers, robes and blankets,

Buffalo Wallow
The depression made by buffalo rolling and dusting themselves. The same wallows were used year after year often becoming quite deep.

Buffalo Wolf
A large, gray wolf found around buffalo herds. Young buffalo calves were the natural food of this animal.

Buffaloed
Confused.

Bug-Tit
A derisive term used to mean any company official who tended to think that he was more important than he actually was.

Bug'S Boys
The Blackfoot Indians.

Bull Boat
A bowl-shaped boat having a willow frame-work covered with green hide. Easy and quick to make; but very difficult to handle.

Bull Cheese
Buffalo jerky.

Cache
A safe place, often hidden, for storage of food and other supplies.

Cache, To
To put or store something in a safe place.

Cahoots, To Go In
To go into partnership.

Calaboose
Jail.

Calzoneras
A form of Mexican trousers often worn by traders.

Canot Du Maitre
A 35- to 40-foot long canoe propelled by fourteen men, (voyageur)

Canot Du Nord
A 25-foot long canoe propelled by eight men. (Voyageur)

Carot
See 'Carrot'

Carrot
A bundle of tobacco, wrapped in linen, then whip-wrapped with cords thus forming a crescent-shaped bundle. An early method of packaging and selling tobacco.

Cayuse
A horse. Also a tribe of Indians in Oregon.

Chaff, To
To make fun of someone. To rub someone the wrong way.

Chaffer, To
To haggle over prices or trade goods.

Chaparral
A thicket of scrub oak and other brush.

Chef De Voyage
A party leader. (Voyageur)

Child
See 'Coon'.

Chinook
A warm wind, usually in the spring. This is a common term in the Northwest.

Cock The
The hammer of a rifle or pistol.

Cold Feet, He Has
He is a coward. Someone who seeks shelter when the going gets tough.

Cone The
The nipple on a percussion rifle or pistol.

Coon
A raccoon. Also a friendly name early mountain men called each other.

Count Coup
To show bravery and receive honor by touching an enemy, usually with a special stick used for that purpose only. In some tribes, touching a living enemy had more honor than touching a dead enemy. Touching a man had more honor than touching a woman. The first to touch received more honor than the second or third. Credit was seldom if ever, given after the third. When feathers were awarded for coup, they were sometimes depending on the tribe, cut or painted to indicate the type and amount of honor they represented. Oddly enough, killing the enemy did not count for coup the first to touch took the honor, be he the killer or not. When used by the mountain man, the expression 'I'll count coup on him' usually meant 'I'll kill him', after which, the taking of the dead man's scalp was normal.

Coureurs De Bois
A woods runner or hunter an early French trapper, (Voyageur)

Courier
A messenger, A term used mostly by traders.

Crimpy Day
A very cold day.

Crooked River
Any river which is filled with sand bars reefs, or actual bends.

Curly Wolf
A man who can brag and is willing to back his talk with his fists or other means.

Cut For Sign, To
To walk or ride back and forth across an area looking for evidence of a man or animal passing.

Dead Fall
A tree blown down by the wind or other force of nature. Also, a trap which utilizes a falling log or stone as the actual trapping mechanism.

Dead Meat
Carrion.

Diamond Hitch
A hitch (knot) used to fasten cargo to a pack saddle.

Dig Up The Tomahawk
Start a war. Often the word 'hatchet' was substituted for 'tomahawk'.

Dry, I Am
I am thirst, likely for something stronger than water.

Du Pont
Gunpowder.

Dumpling Dust
Flour. This term originated from the early practice of mixing dough by pouring water in a depression made in the flour while it was still in the sack, causing small puffs of dust. Both the term and practice are still used by north woodsmen.

Dutch Oven
A large kettle with three feet and a dished lid. It can be used for both cooking and baking.

Dutchman
Any type of temporary prop or support.

Easy Water
Calm, smooth water on a river or lake.

Engagement
A 3-year agreement between a trapper and a fur company.

Engages
Company trappers bound for 3 years to sell all they trap to only one company.

Factor
Chief of a trading post or trading party, authorized by the company to sell or trade company merchandise.

Fat Pine
Pitch pine, very good for starting fires.

Father Of All Waters
Mississippi River. An Indian term.

Feast Cakes
Pancakes.

Filly
A young, female horse; although just as likely to be applied to a young, shapely, good-looking woman.

Fire Water
Whiskey. This term comes from the Indian practice of throwing a cup of whiskey into a fire to see if it would burn. If it would not flame up, it would not be accepted.

Fizz-Pop
A very early soda pop made by mixing a little vinegar and a spoon of sugar in a glass of fresh water. Just before drinking mix in about a quarter of a spoon of soda.

Flash In The Pan
A misfire. Also a man who spends a great deal of time bragging, but never seems to be around when it comes to proving himself.

Flat Boat
A large scow used to float up to three tons of fur and skins to St. Louis.

Fleshed
Any skin or hide which had the flesh and fat scraped off before it was dried.

Fleshing
The process of removing the excess flesh and fat from a skin or hide.

Float Stick
A stick attached to a steel trap used to show the location of the trap and the trapped animal. From this comes the expression, 'That's the way my stick floats' , meaning , ' That's the way I feel about it.'

Foofarraw
Any fancy clothing or anything fancy on clothing. Just about anything used for decoration

Fork A Horse (Or Mule)
Mount the animal.

Fort Up
Get ready to fight a defensive battle.

Free Trapper
A trapper who worked for himself, trapping and selling where he wanted and to whom he wanted. As free a man as the elements would allow.

Fur Country
As the mountain men used the expression, The Rocky Mountains.

Fusees
A fusil or trade musket