Wordinistas! Check out A Way With Words, public radio's call-in show about language.
Dictionary definition of “dally”

dally

n. a turn of rope around a saddle horn. Also v. Subjects: ,
Editorial Note: The historical and etymological information in the 1986 cite has not been verified.
Comments? | Cites | Permalink | Tell a Friend
Citations: 1933 Frank M. King Los Angeles Times (June 11) “Can You Imagine?” p. H3: The reatas were from fifty to seventy feet long and the cattle were snared at long range. They took the dallies then just like the California cow punchers do to this day. (To dally means to wrap the reatta around the saddle horn.) 1952 Nevada State Journal (Reno) (June 29) “Here Are Rodeo Events and Rules Governing Them” p. S8: Ropers must dally to stop steer. 1986 Gretel Ehrlich Solace of Open Spaces (Dec. 1) p. 93: The team ropers are next. Most of them hail from the hilly oak-strewn valleys of California where dally roping originated…The word dally is a corruption of the Spanish da la vuelta, meaning to take a turn, as with a rope around the saddle horn.
Posted 17 Jun 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Leave a comment (must be approved by the moderator before it will appear).

Name (mandatory):

Email (mandatory):

Location (optional):

Your Web Site (optional):

Remember my personal information

Notify me, by email, of follow-up comments.

Recent Catchwords
window-dress v. (10/5)
doughnut effect n. (10/5)
Southwest effect n. (10/5)
glass closet n. (10/5)
relamp v. (10/5)
ghost voting n. (10/5)
jallad n. (10/5)
hanging yellow n. (10/5)
Chekhov’s gun n. (10/5)
primary v. (10/3)
mack n. (10/3)
bridge-up n. (10/3)
paramount lighting n. (10/3)
HAC n. (10/2)
hydraulicking n. (10/2)
waterfall structure n. (10/2)
doughing in n. (10/1)
drop table n. (10/1)
spag n. (10/1)
spiking n. (10/1)
 More catchwords...
Lexicographer's Rules
Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours (10/6)
What a bitchin’ word! (9/24)
Don’t forget about the dialect: dauncy/donsie, faunch, and jockey box (9/10)
Wilf? Yuffer? Get real! (8/27)
Lexicographer Laurence Urdang Dies at 81 (8/26)
A thesaurus can be harmful (8/6)
Can bad language punditry be stopped? Can false attributions for classic quotes be fixed? (7/27)
There’s one in every country (7/23)
Scottish Language Dictionaries fundraiser (7/12)
SouthWest Writers (7/10)
 More blog entries...
Find A Word  »
 A   B   C   D   E 
 F   G   H   I   J 
 K   L   M   N   O 
 P   Q   R   S   T 
 U   V   W   X   Y 
 Z   0-9 
Search
Search Site

Google Site Search
Recent searches: woof & weave… turnip truck… pet care… shoes… boondock… lawyer… 420… 420…
New Comments
rajan commented on cope up (10/6)
Rod Teague commented on Taig (10/3)
Deborah Davenport commented on balloon construction (10/1)
lawmak commented on talk out (the side of) one's neck (10/1)
Peter Heck commented on spiff (10/1)
Vickie Hamrick commented on singlism (10/1)
Jay-Low commented on rocket surgery (10/1)
Wilson Gray commented on night trick (9/29)
Lou commented on Yankee dime (9/28)
Bruce Savoy commented on rexing (9/28)
Mark Weller commented on hokey Dinah (9/27)
misty commented on janky (9/27)
raisa commented on little red dot (9/26)
Superman commented on night trick (9/25)
marcia martin commented on terminal wean (9/24)
Subscribe to the RSS feed. • Subscribe to the mailing list. • Browse the archive. • Add to Technorati Favorites. • © 1999-2008 by Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary, New York City.