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Shu came across the word vum in a poem, which evidently is a regionalism from New England that is used to express surprise, as in, "Well I vum!" or "I'll be vummed!" Have you heard it? The site above then mentioned another regionalism from the south being swan or swanny to mean "swear." That is used as "Now I swanny..." I hadn't heard of any of these, have you? Do you have some others? | ||
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Never heard either of them. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I've been here in NE for some time and have never heard that term. I have heard the southern expression as swarn, with more of an "r" than if it was "swan". | ||
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It's an alteration of vow according to the OED. swan is "probably northern English dialect I s' wan lit. ‘I shall warrant’ = I'll be bound; later taken as a mincing substitute for swear v." | |||
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Each of these poems has the word vum: Wonderful One-Hoss Shay and Darius Greene and His Flying Machine | |||
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