The Herald Republican. The Star. Online Poll. In recent years has Facebook had a positive or negative impact on our nation? You voted:. Very positive. Slightly positive. Slightly negative.
Very negative. Special Sections. Readers Choice NS. Spring Home and Garden. Healthy Living Winter. Bridal Guide Spring Dekalb County Community Guide Noble County Community Guide Get The Job Winter Steuben County Community Guide LaGrange Community Guide Go Green NEI Senior Guide DeKalb Graduation The characters you play on the show are extremely diverse—ranging from a cocaine-rattled rich boy to an ornery Jewish grandpa.
The budding relationship between the ornery sexagenarian and the precocious young child ultimately gives the film its momentum. With Nebraska, however, the movie received a minute standing ovation by the famously ornery French crowd. We had some pretty ornery people, and we had to find a way to compromise and get things done.
He's an ornery cuss kind of Republican, extremely critical of Bush and Cheney back in the day. With a roast apple in his snout, and a ribbon—a blue—no, a pink ribbon decorating his ornery little tail. I felt so ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; I'll hive that money for them or bust. The Irish may be ornery , and they aint worth much, but they are a whole lot better than the —— —— Dutch.
I'm for the Union as she air, and withered be the arm of every ornery cuss who attempts to bust her up. There used to be a New Yorker character in the About Town section called the Curmudgeon, for his mild, but gentlemanly, disparagement of modern ways. Nowadays a person who was truly bad-tempered or surly would be called a jerk or worse, and he wouldn't seem harmless. I was especially pleased to learn the origin of the word, and like contemplating the reasons an "ordinary" man might become "ornery.
I'm British, and I associate the spelling 'ornery' exclusively with Huckleberry Finn, which I think is the only place I've seen it in print. I may have heard it many times, but if so, I think I've just taken it as an American pronunciation of 'ordinary' without any special connotations. I'm interested to learn that that is far from the case. By not taking your jab in the good-natured way that it was intended he demonstrated that he is in fact in the bad-natured state he claims to have taken offense at your having stated he is in.
Apart from the issues of politeness involved here, I don't think there is actually any semantic problem. I'm from Kansas, and the pronunciation I was brought up with is closer to "arn-ree". Likewise, it was and is used with this "minority" definition in my family and circle of friends.
Before this article, I had never known it to be interpreted with a negative connotation. With Western Reserve roots in northern Ohio, I say "orn-ree" and mean 'cantakerous and crotchety. However, those who use it affectionately also have been known to use the terms "geezer" and "fossil" in the same way, so I'm not sure that they think of "ornery" as a positive word either but are just using it ironically!
The best match I've ever found for it is "thran" or "thrawn," a word used in northwestern Ireland. The OED gives it as "Sc. Perverse, contrary; cross-grained, ill-tempered, crabbed, peevish, cross. I'm from Washington, DC, late 40s, with a Philadelphian family of origin, and my understanding was exactly as Victor describes in the post.
The only person I recall using this word when I was growing up was my dad from Oregon. He uses the "awn-ree" pronunciation. I never saw the word in writing until I was at least in my late teens, and it was quite a revelation to me to see how it was spelled. I've since heard "or-ner-ee" pronunciation.
I'm glad I've never had to utter the word, because now I'm confused about how to pronounce it. Luckily, I'm pretty sure the only person I'd use the word in conversation with is my dad, so I'd use his pronunciation. I understand the word to have the dictionary definition. That seems to be using the dictionary definition also, but without any sort of affection attached. An instance of popular-culture usage giving an eye-dialect alternative spelling is the title track written by Steve Young of the Waylon Jennings album "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean.
Is being an "outlaw" a good thing or a bad thing? Well, you could say that it's the sort of pejorative which can also in certain contexts be used affectionately or admiringly, which brings us right back where we came in.
That's my day made, at least. Yes I've heard that love that's lasting comes far and in between And how that childhood sweetheart gets ornery and mean They always say the honeymoon is where the romance ends But I've never heard of lovers that can be best friends. FWIW, "awn-ree" from the original post accounts pretty well for Waylon's pronunciation of the word assuming the one live performance I sampled via youtube was typical.
SlideSF: It would be pronounced "onnery" by a horse-hoarse-distinguishing non-rhotic New England speaker, of whom there are still a few. It also has both the negative and positive definitions, both of which include "disagreeable" as part of the definition. My experience is that the word is generally used affectionately. But basically the same meaning whether affectionate or insulting. And definitely awn-ree.
Actually, I can't be sure how familiar orn-er-y is as a pronunciation, since that's the spelling pronunciation. It's a favorite word in Utah, and almost always pronounced "onn-ree. It's not a common word in my personal lexicon, but when I do say it, it has three syllables. Raised in New Jersey, living in California. Whether it's affectionate or pejorative is contextual. In my experience, based on communications with members of my extensive family all of whom are, without exception, ornery in this geographic area, I believe I am qualified to make the following observations, based on facts within my expertise and personal knowledge: 1 ornery, like chifferobe and liniment, is an older term; 2 its usage continues in two contexts, one, by members of an older demographic my cousin, Paul, for example, who is 85, blind, and very ornery who wish to criticize someone "outside" the family, and, two, by younger persons wishing to convey delicately and precisely an issue involving someone or something they love.
This may explain the disconnect your friend experienced. The "onn-ree" pronunciation and "disagreeable" interpretation are featured prominently in a recent hip hop song by Common called "No Sell Out". This link jumps to the relevant portion of the song:. The user who posted the video also provided a transcript of the lyrics.
Interestingly, he transcribed the word in question as "awry", which would seem to require initial stress "AH-ree" rather than the typical final stress to be a reasonable candidate here…is such a pronunciation attested? I think the "No Sell Out" lyrics are just mistranscribed, especially since adding the "n" for for a more plausible awn'ry better fits the rhyme with "laundry. From Tennessee, and 59 myself, I've always heard and said it as "ornree" or "ornuhree" if it's emphatic, and its meaning is closer to willfully stubborn.
I wouldn't say it's a real insult, but it's not a nice thing to call someone, either. I generally agree with your interpretation of the word which I pronounce quite distinctly in three syllables. But I might have two slightly differing meanings for the word as well: the most common would be the description of a person like Andy Rooney, who always brought up the rear at the conclusion of the TV program "60 Minutes".
He was delightful in his curmudgeonly complaints about things which annoy most people. I see nothing in the word as being devious, a trickster, mischievious or any other negative meaning.
In German I'd say "ihm sticht der Hafer" akin to "feeling his oats" or "der hat seine Mucken". A perfect example could have been my Dad who was generally very elegant and charming, but there were certain things he would not tolerate, when he would suddenly acquire a demeanor or tone or words still all VERY polite and correct , but sharp like Gallic humor.
Dense people sometimes didn't take note which at times could be quite to their detriment. One of my "Mucken" is when I get thoroughly annoyed with someone that I take on a very stiffly British accent. To anyone that knows me also knows that that means "watch out". I'm from Texas. I've heard both pronunciations, but I think the two-syllable version is more common, partly because the word is usually used in an informal context. I use it affectionately for someone who insists on bucking the tide.
It's usually said with a mix of approval and exasperation of someone who refuses to go along. We used to say of it of my father quite a bit. Though I've also heard the expression ornery and mean, and I suspect the use of "mean" makes that much less affectionate and complimentary. For me, the two-syllable pronunciation is decidedly negative, but like many negatives, intonation or context can make it positive.
I will pronounce it with three, protracted syllables when I want to make sure that the positive aspect is the one meant. To me, "ornery" means something like perverse, contrary — disagreeing or disobeying for the sake of disagreeing or disobeying, or, more generally, responding in an unexpected way.
Feynman seems to have had something of the sort in mind when the referred to "the ornery response of a gyroscope". Eric P Smith — Not sure about connotations in Scotland, but I don't think I've ever heard "thran" being used in anything other than a derogatory sense — whereas at least in my idiolect Philadelphia, plus interference from Ireland and years of living in a sort of Globish environment in China , "ornery" implies a sort of exasperated affection or admiration.
August 6, am. Canadian here, grew up in the Toronto area. Agree with the other CDN upthread. This is a rather obscure song but the word "ornery" always makes me think of the song "Swing" by Ani DiFranco who grew up in Buffalo, NY. Are you weary as water In a faucet left dripping With an incessant sadness Like a sad record skipping And an ugly and ornery And shadowy dread Lurking like a troll under the bridge Between your heart and your head.
I'm Australian. I've only heard it or used it in the three-syllable version, with the tone of endearment attached. For what it's worth, the Collins English Dictionary written in Scotland marks it as US and Canadian and lists three senses: 1 stubborn or vile-termpered; 2 low, treacherous; 3 ordinary. That is the conceit behind endless television episodes and movies like "Cranky Old Men.
For me, a BrE speaker, 'ornery' is exclusively US, and equally exclusively negative: as the OED puts it 'commonplace, inferior, unpleasant; now esp. However, as Jonathan Mayhew points out, the cantankerous old man trope can be flattering; there was a British TV serial 'Grumpy Old Men', described by Wikipedia as 'a number of well-known middle-aged men talking about any issues of modern life which irritate them, from the proliferation of excessive road signs to unnecessary and overly-loud mobile phone conversations'.
The "ordinary" sense still survives in the folk hymn "I Wonder as I Wander"; having grown up mostly in upstate New York, the child of Texan parents, I was startled by "For poor or'nry people like you and like I" the first time I heard the hymn, but the meaning was pretty clear from context.
0コメント