Having the Vapors

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Richard. It’s calling from Austin, Texas.

Well, hello, Richard. What’s going on in Austin?

Yeah, we’re just a city recovering from on South by Southwest right now.

Oh! The big music festival. There were a zillion bands there, right? And then the tech geeks show up after that, right?

Oh, yeah. Well, there’s tech people, there’s film people, and there’s music people.

Oh, that’s right. Three of them. And which one are you?

I’m more of a music person than anything else.

-huh. Like most of the people in my town, after all.

Right, right. Great town for music, Austin.

Absolutely. Well, yeah, I was just calling about the vapors. I remember hearing this phrase, I guess, in movies, where there’d be like an old stereotypical Southern Belle saying, you know, getting flustered about something and saying, oh, I believe I have the vapors.

Let’s hear that one more time. What that was, what exactly that meant. Anything you have for me would be great.

Okay, Richard. Do you have any theories about the vapors?

Yeah, I kind of figured it’s some sort of like Victorian medical thing where, you know, sort of like the humorous. We don’t really think that way anymore, but the phrase stuck. That’s the only real theory I have.

Yeah, yeah, bingo. Yeah, as far back as the 15th century, people were talking about the vapors that emanate from the stomach going up this time and go into your head and make you just sort of nervous or ill, that kind of thing. So it’s an idea that’s been around for a long, long time.

And as you suggested, it’s like the humors. People didn’t really understand how the body was working. But you’re right, too, that it’s a wonderful Southern expression in particular, the vapors. It’s right in line with all those other Southern euphemisms for all kinds of things that befall, especially women.

I can remember my grandmother from East Tennessee talking about the vipers or talking about how this or that girl had come unwell.

Do you know what? I’ve never heard that one.

Yeah, if you come unwell, that’s a euphemism for a woman’s time of the month, in other words.

I see. So the vipers is of a piece with all those kinds of—

But it’s not a euphemism, right? It just generally means being out of sorts or flustered, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s kind of an all-purpose diagnosis, but I think originally there was this thought that it was an actual physical thing that happened, something came up out of your stomach.

Right, but something that was odorless and tasteless and colorless, right?

I hope so. Is it something like the vapors are what drive you, and if they get out of balance, that’s a problem? Or is it something like you only get vapors going when you’re upset?

Oh, I see. I’m not quite sure how it worked, actually.

Yeah. The mechanics are weird. I hesitate to bring this up because I don’t want to perpetuate a false connection.

Oh, go ahead. In later days, in recent decades, many young people who don’t have any experience with this except through the movies have reanalyzed it, meaning they’ve taken the word and said, what possibly could they mean by the vapors, and assumed that it means flatulence.

And so when you have these charming southern women saying, oh, I believe I’ve come down with a case of the vapors, that the modern young Americans would assume that she was saying that she had gas. And it’s not true. It doesn’t mean that. It has never meant that, even though there is that connection between the words.

Vivian Lee was not…

Well, I’m glad to hear that.

Yeah. It wasn’t really something I wanted to talk too much about, so I guess, you know, it works for me.

Glad to oblige, then. We’ll just close there. Have we helped you some, Richard?

Yeah, I think so. I think you seem to hear all these other little aspects of it.

All right. Well, thank you for your call, sir.

Thank you very much for taking my call.

All right. All right, Richard. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Well, the number to call here is 1-877-929-9673 or email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.