Glossary of Terms

Some of the following terms, while typical of the day, are now considered offensive, and do not reflect the author’s mindset. Also, while trapping was a way of life in the 1800s, the author does not condone trapping of any kind (other than live trapping for rescue efforts).

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

Boudins—A buffalo gut containing chyme, which was cut into lengths about 24 inches long and roasted before a fire until crisp and sizzling.

Bug’s Boys—Slang name for Blackfoot Indians meaning sons of Beelzebub which turned into Bub’s Boys and then Bug’s Boys.

Catlinite—Pipestone used for carvings, especially pipes.

Capote—A long coat made from wool trade blankets, usually with a hood.

Child and hos—Words for expressing self as in this child/hos ain’t never seen such doin’s.

Dogface—Used by Native Americans of various nations for fur trappers, mountain men, or white men in general who wore any facial hair, especially a beard.

Doin’s—An event or experience, as in “That rendezvous was some fine doin’s.”

Ephraim—Mountain man term for grizzly bear, usually Old Ephraim.

Fachan—Scottish ogre.

Gorget—Usually the French pronunciation, the word means a small piece of armor protecting the throat—often decorative, tied around the neck with leather or cord.

Hole—A valley such as Brown’s Hole and Pierre’s Hole.

Kentucky long rifle—The long rifle, also known as longrifle, Kentucky rifle, or Pennsylvania rifle, one of the first to use rifling vs smoothbore. Although the Hawken rifle is more famous, the majority of mountain men carried other types of firearms.

Kinnikinick—Tobacco and dried sumac leaves, bark, other natural elements.

Lasts—wooden molds (forms) around which shoes are built.

Made beaver—A dried beaver pelt, usually scraped and stretched, ready to be bundled. Beaver pelts were folded and pressed. On average it took sixty pelts to make a ninety-pound pack.

Painter—a corruption of the word panther. A cougar or mountain lion.

Park—a big valley such a South Park, similar to Hole.

Plews—Beaver hides.

Peetrified—In 1807-08, John Colter explored the area now known as Yellowstone National Park, and astonishing tales of geysers and petrified trees soon followed. This was a frequent distortion of the word.

Parfleche—A hide, especially a buffalo's hide, dried by being stretched on a frame after the hair has been removed and painted.

Pemmican—Used by Indians and mountain men. Food made by mixing powdered jerky with dried berries, wild peppermint, and hot tallow, then packed and stored in skin or gut bags. This is a high energy survival food.

Plews—Term for beaver hides.

Poor bull from fat cow—To know good times from bad, “Them days war Poor Bull for sure.”

Possibles—The personal property of the mountain man. Such items as a bullet mold, an awl, knives, a tin cup, his buffalo robe or a blanket capote, his pipe and tobacco, flint and steel, sometimes a small sheet-metal fry-pan, and other accouterments he considered necessary. Firearms were considered pieces or guns and not possibles.

Possibles bag—The bag in which the mountain man carried his possibles. Everything from pipe and tobacco to his patches and balls. What could not be carried in the bag were hung on the shoulder strap. Shooting needs were given first priority and kept where they could be found with ease and speed.

Pilgrim—Usually immigrants, people moving west. The term was also sometimes used by the mountain men to mean any man new to the fur trade.

Pull foot—To turn tail and run.

Siksika—Another name for the Blackfoot Indians.

Siskeedee-Agie—Local term for the Green river.

Shining—To shine means to be extra good at something. Thems was shinin’ times.

Shining Mountains—An early name for the Rocky Mountains, also called the Stony Mountains.

Short starter—To load a muzzle loader you seat the ball a “short” way down the barrel before using a ramrod.

Snow eater—A chinook wind quickly melting snow.

Sprue—Is the little bump on a lead ball produced when it is cast.

Tanglefoot—Whiskey.

There go horse and beaver—Meaning to lose everything you owned or have with you.

Throw smoke—To shoot a firearm.

Trace—A trail.

Waugh or Wagh—An exclamation of great emotion, used by both Mountain Men and Indians. Usually denoting surprise, sometimes good, sometimes bad. It is believed to have originated from the sound made by a bear when surprised.

Westerin’`—Heading even farther into the frontier all the way to the Pacific Northwest territory, now Oregon.

Whatever way your stick floats—When trapping, a stick was attached to the trap so you could find it. This was an expression similar to whatever floats your boat.