I had known this word as “pekid,” meaning to appear unhealthy, but it’s not in Merriam-Webster’s 10th Collegiate Dictionary, and that left me wondering, “Well where did I get that from?” The OneLook Dictionaries website offered only one dictionary listing pekid: Wictionary, which says that the word is an “eye dialect spelling of peaked.” Now I’m even more confused. What is an eye dialect?
Vicky Ayers:
February 8th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Eye dialect is misspelling words to indicate that they are pronounced in an odd way. Like “wudges” to mean “would you”.
Earlene Smith:
September 23rd, 2015 at 3:56 pm
Peak-ed
There is an obscure verse in the song “My Darling Clementine” where, after she drowned, her father (the miner, 49-er)
“soon began to peak and pine”.
This only verifies what we already know and we know that people also pine away. Just wanted to throw that into the mix.
Am doubtful of the origins guessed at here as one having reached his peak or pinnacle.
Phyllis:
December 4th, 2015 at 12:16 am
Yes, but why the variant pronunciations ? Does the 2- syllable peaked “ill” derive from the regional English derivation?
Tom:
March 20th, 2017 at 4:12 pm
An eye dialect needn’t signal a special pronunciation. It may indicate something else, such as rusticness, as in spelling victuals as vittles even though the outdated word victuals is pronounced exactly the same.
Tom Cox:
October 9th, 2017 at 5:48 pm
In Macbeth, Act I, Scene III, the First Witch says, “Shall he dwindle, peak and pine”.
No less a literary lighthouse than Tennessee Williams used the two-syllable pronunciation in an obscure poem cast as a blues lyric. I just now stumbled upon this diadem & will perform it, possibly for the first time in human history, at Cameron’s Pub in Half Moon Bay, CA this Thursday night. Stop by if you’re in town!
Kitchen Door Blues
My old lady died of a common cold
She smoked cigars and was 90 years old
She was thin as paper with the ribs of a kite
And she flew out the kitchen door one night
Now I’m no younger’n the old lady was
When she lost gravitation, and I smoke cigars
I feel sort of PEAK-ED and I look klnda pore
So for God’s sake lock that kitchen door!
Tamara Cooper:
September 26th, 2019 at 8:17 pm
So, just to clarify: I come from the South. Here, we say, “You look a little peak-ed.” In writing a novel, would it be proper (ha! if I can use that word loosely in this context!) to spell it peak-ed so the reader will know that’s how it’s being used? Thanks!
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Steve Dunham:
February 2nd, 2011 at 11:11 am
I had known this word as “pekid,” meaning to appear unhealthy, but it’s not in Merriam-Webster’s 10th Collegiate Dictionary, and that left me wondering, “Well where did I get that from?” The OneLook Dictionaries website offered only one dictionary listing pekid: Wictionary, which says that the word is an “eye dialect spelling of peaked.” Now I’m even more confused. What is an eye dialect?
Vicky Ayers:
February 8th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Eye dialect is misspelling words to indicate that they are pronounced in an odd way. Like “wudges” to mean “would you”.
Earlene Smith:
September 23rd, 2015 at 3:56 pm
Peak-ed
There is an obscure verse in the song “My Darling Clementine” where, after she drowned, her father (the miner, 49-er)
“soon began to peak and pine”.
This only verifies what we already know and we know that people also pine away. Just wanted to throw that into the mix.
Am doubtful of the origins guessed at here as one having reached his peak or pinnacle.
Phyllis:
December 4th, 2015 at 12:16 am
Yes, but why the variant pronunciations ? Does the 2- syllable peaked “ill” derive from the regional English derivation?
Tom:
March 20th, 2017 at 4:12 pm
An eye dialect needn’t signal a special pronunciation. It may indicate something else, such as rusticness, as in spelling victuals as vittles even though the outdated word victuals is pronounced exactly the same.
Tom Cox:
October 9th, 2017 at 5:48 pm
In Macbeth, Act I, Scene III, the First Witch says, “Shall he dwindle, peak and pine”.
Harold Fethe:
November 8th, 2017 at 7:48 am
No less a literary lighthouse than Tennessee Williams used the two-syllable pronunciation in an obscure poem cast as a blues lyric. I just now stumbled upon this diadem & will perform it, possibly for the first time in human history, at Cameron’s Pub in Half Moon Bay, CA this Thursday night. Stop by if you’re in town!
Kitchen Door Blues
My old lady died of a common cold
She smoked cigars and was 90 years old
She was thin as paper with the ribs of a kite
And she flew out the kitchen door one night
Now I’m no younger’n the old lady was
When she lost gravitation, and I smoke cigars
I feel sort of PEAK-ED and I look klnda pore
So for God’s sake lock that kitchen door!
Tamara Cooper:
September 26th, 2019 at 8:17 pm
So, just to clarify: I come from the South. Here, we say, “You look a little peak-ed.” In writing a novel, would it be proper (ha! if I can use that word loosely in this context!) to spell it peak-ed so the reader will know that’s how it’s being used? Thanks!