West Texas Vocab

As someone who's moved from place to place almost more times than I can count, I'm always on the lookout for regional slang/dialect. I thought I'd share some of the new vocabulary words I've learned now that I've been in West Texas for a year.

Ditch chicken. This one made me laugh uncontrollably. Picture below. You might know it as a ring-necked pheasant in more normal parts of the country.

Speedgoat. Pronghorn. It's not a goat (or an antelope) but it's pretty dang fast - the fastest land mammal in North America, able to reach speeds of up to 55 mph.

Three pronghorn does. Photo taken from a plane during 2014 pronghorn surveys

Norther. Cold front. They always come from the north.

Bull bat. Common nighthawk, a bird in the order Caprimulgiformes that comes out in the evenings, has weird gangly wings that make a funny sound when the bird dive-bombs bugs, and is nearly impossible not to hit when driving down the highway at night.

Turdfloater. Heavy rain, heavy enough to pool in the roads and pastures and, well, move the cow turds around.

Vinegaroon. This horrifying creature:

not my photo, not my man-hands

...which is apparently some kind of arachnid related to scorpions. Also known as whipscorpions, vinegaroons are not venomous, fortunately (though they're still horrifying and I hope I never actually see one).

Summer. March - November.

Breeze. Any wind speed less than 30 mph.

Hurricane. Glorious, wonderful source of rain. Wait, they're bad for some people?

That's it for now. Pop quiz tomorrow.