So I go the the pinnacle of deep spiritual wisdom after not having been there for a while. I speak, of course, of the endowment ceremony, may it forever be blessed. Almost the very first sentence in the thing says something like "YONDER is matter unorganized..."

Are you sh#tting me?? Is God Pa Kettle? "Yonder?!"

I kept snickering through the rest of the proceedings.

I wonder if there are any other weird and just plain embarrassing words or expressions in our super sacred rituals that I am just too conditioned to recognize??

Yonder is a good word. I actually use it IRL. I also say "by and by." Is that so bad?

Heaven's to Betsy no! It surely does urkle my craw when folks set about tellin' me what's good speech and what's too old fasioned to their liking. To my mind it's just Tom foolery.

:)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2014 10:17AM by zarahemlatowndrunk.

Uh, I'm not a hick. I'm just a person with a fairly strong vocabulary and a penchant for actually using the words I know. I know several words. The other day I mentioned something that I saw "down by the weir on the river." People looked at me funny. What kind of person lives near a partially dammed river and doesn't know what a weir is? Don't be looking at me!

Call me literary. I also love cats. Got nothing to prove. Nothing to see here. Please move on.

I AM actually a Hick by heritage and have always hated templespeak.
Deathly boring.

This would be MUCH more comfortable (to me):

"Yo awaaaay out thar faaaaar away.
Thar be stuff in a mess ain't done put away right.
G'waan down thar y'awl Geeee-hoe-varr an' fix it.
Then 'maaawn back an' tell me you dunnit right."

Oi maun learn they words.

I've never heard it nor read it.

weir
noun \ˈwer, ˈwir\

: a low wall or dam built across a stream or river to raise the level of the water or to change the direction of its flow

Thanks for sharing. I live near a place called Weir Canyon. Near by is a small dam. Now I know why they call it Weir Canyon. I assumed it was someone's name.

Standard British word for what some parts of the US call a diversion dam. I love English literature, and it shows up not infrequently.

See, I never heard of a diversion dam. But it makes sense. All weirs seem to be diversion dams. I think that at one point in my life I asked myself what those things are called, and it turned out to be "weir." So I went with it.

No it's great. Especially if god is fixin' to hep y'all build one o' them there worlds. JK

Again, you're confusing words (a.k.a. "vocabulary") with hicks. They are valid English words. Do you speak native English, or are you, peradventure, an immigrant?

Who's to say y'all, fixin' to, them there (thar) etc. AREN'T valid English words? They're just as much a part of the English language's rich heritage and history as yonder, weir, whither, and yon.

You're right, of course. They're all very valid. What we say when we talk (short of using poor grammar, of course--which is plain wrong and should be roundly punished) is kind of a living, changing thing. "Y'all," and "all y'all," and even *chokes* "all y'all's" are as valid as just about anything else. (I give them points over "youse," but that is probably just as valid.) I think that it is sad when we let words slip away. "Yonder" is a great word. Why substitute "over there" when one word will do? Problem is, English just changes too damn fast for anyone to keep track. Next thing you know, people start saying things like "to click on." And then the Germans start start in with "klicken," and Eye-talians start saying "cliccare," and the Spaniards "cliccar." And then it spins out of control. Next thing you know, people start talking gay rights and universal medical care.

Yawwwwlzes-yaawwwl, Cludgie.

Here in the South that word gets usd a lot...but I DOUBT that God comes from the south. Joseph's Myth was such an idiot. Not to forget LIAR and CON MAN too.

I've never been through the ceremony but that sounds super spiritual!!! ha!! ha!! (my best missionary impression).

I think "thither" would have sounded more biblical.

Well, "thither," you see, is just downright stupid. Say it to yourself several times. (If you can.)

Nonsense, "cometh hither and goeth thither" is if not poetic, a little racy!

Soon as they said "yonder" I yawned and fell asleep.

I just don't have the tongue thrust to be able to say them easily. Silly words, too. "Thither." Indeed.

Because god, et seq. spoke king James when they had a choice.

Riiighhhhht.

The word "yonder" really made me feel the spirit back in tha day.
They could have stopped the speech right there.

All I can think of is that song "Way out yonder in the paw paw patch". Yonder is a word I know the meaning of, but what, pray tell is a paw paw?

Yonder is just antiquated.

Too many things are called "paw paw." Like maybe your grandfather. But in the states also a native American tuber that's a bit potato-like, and a kind of native American fruit tree that I have heard of but never actually seen. I noticed in South Africa they called papayas "paw-paws." Confusin', ain't it?

Asimina triloba, the pawpaw, paw paw, paw-paw, or common pawpaw, is a species of Asimina (the pawpaw genus) in the same plant family (the Annonaceae) as the custard-apple, cherimoya, sweetsop, ylang-ylang and soursop. The pawpaw is native to the Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern United States and adjacent southernmost Ontario, Canada, from New York west to southeastern Nebraska, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas.[1][2] The pawpaw is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottom-land and hilly upland habitat, with large, simple leaves and large fruits. The paw paw is the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pawpaw

I use the word yonder.

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

--------------------------------------

Good enough for The Bard, good enough for me.

As Thomas Murphy points out, the BoMor is a 19th Century document.
And "yonder" is a 19th century word.

And it fits with Smith's mixing of King James and backwoods.

Howdy, Lard Jee-hoe-vuh. YONDER we got tuh git sum matter ahrgunized.

Say what you will about it, Yonder is an antiquated word for a reason. It's the stuff of bad cowboy movies. It identifies the user as a phony folksy type, one usually trying to portray an aw shucks image to sell you something at places with names like Kathy's Kountry Kupboard.