heap - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
heap n (often in plural) A large quantity. [oed heap n 4a; dost hepe n 1 c1400→; snd heap n ‘a large number or quantity, a great deal’; dare heap n 1 ‘a large number, great deal’ chiefly South, South Midland]
Ulst.:
1893 O’Neill Glens and Speech 371 Sure, she can get heaps and heaps of men.
c1910 Wier Bab McKeen 58 There’s nae sayin’ but sometimes this’ll mak’ a heap o’ difference.
1921 O’Neill More Songs of Glens 25 I larned a thrick to watch it out an’ still to hould me tongue, / An’ sure enough it saved a heap o’ bother.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 115 = a lot (very common in a heap o money, a heap o yins, etc.) ‘It’s a heap o odds!’ = (sarcastically) It matters a lot!; ‘think a heap o’ = be very fond of; think highly of.
U.S.:
1824 Knight Letters 107 Some words are used, even by genteel people … in a new sense; and … pronounced very uncouthly, as … heap of times.
1924 Spring Lydia Whaley 3 I’ve seed a heap of ups and downs and had a world of trouble the whole world through and I hope I get to a better one some day.
1939 Hall Coll [I] caught a heap of fish in them mountain streams.
1957 Parris My Mts 7 A heap of folks borrow trouble just because they don’t read nature’s signs and don’t listen to their elders.
