VOOZH about

URL: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/druthers.323796/

⇱ Druthers | WordReference Forums

Menu
Install the app
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

Druthers

malc19ken

New Member
UK and English
Is the word 'druthers' found anywhere in non-American English usage?

Does it appear in UK English literature?
I've never heard of it...what does it mean?
Vaguely brings to mind something to do with horses...but that's a wild guess. The word isn't used in Australia (or very very rarely used), but I've heard it somewhere.
I'd rather .....
I druther .....
My druthers are the things I wish I might have been able to do.
I would rather ...

1896 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Tom Sawyer, Detective ix. 74 ‘Any way you druther have it, that is the way I druther have it.’ ‘There ain't any druthers about it, Huck Finn; nobody said anything about druthers.’

PS - I think it is very AE, not likely to be found in BE or in British literature, except in imitation of AE.
It probably wouldn't be understood by all American's either. It's rather old-fashioned. I don't think I've heard it said by anyone who is currently less than sixty years old.
This is from the liner notes on a Velvet Underground album reedition:

"If he'd had his druthers, he would liked to have written standard, fantastic pop songs, like James Brown and Smokey Robinson", Sterling Morrison once said of Lou Reed.

Cheers
Bobby Darin's song:

Johnny:
If I had my druthers
I'd druther have my druthers
Then anything else I know.


I believe it is a sloppy spoken "If I had my rathers".

(If I had my choices...)
I always wondered what it meant - thank you (all) for explaining!
I've lost track of the number of times this has happened to me since I joined WRF:
up until two days ago I don't think I'd come across this word before. Then today ~ blammo! ~ there it is in a short story I was reading:

Like I say, I think George would go right on living in the house if he had his druthers.

[Stephen King: The Road Virus Heads North]
Bobby Darin's song:

Johnny:
If I had my druthers
I'd druther have my druthers
Then anything else I know.


I believe it is a sloppy spoken "If I had my rathers".

(If I had my choices...)

I've checked several dictionaries, all of which derive it ultimately from would rather, except for the Online Etymological Dictionary which traces it back only as far as I'd rather.

In its etymology for druthers the Oxford English Dictionary gives some former variant forms: 'druther(s) and 'ruther(s)--note the apostrophe on the latter, standing for the elided d.

I'm in my mid-fifties and use druthers occasionally. It wasn't part of my mother dialect, however: I adopted it later.
I've checked several dictionaries, all of which derive it ultimately from would rather, except for the Online Etymological Dictionary which traces it back only as far as I'd rather.

In its etymology for druthers the Oxford English Dictionary gives some former variant forms: 'druther(s) and 'ruther(s)--note the apostrophe on the latter, standing for the elided d.

I'm in my mid-fifties and use druthers occasionally. It wasn't part of my mother dialect, however: I adopted it later.

I defer to your research. I didn't look it up. I just typed what I thought I knew.
I'm in my mid-fifties and use druthers occasionally. It wasn't part of my mother dialect, however: I adopted it later.

I'm in my late 30s and I use it. Picked it up from my dad. He's from Iowa (is this heaven? No, it's Iowa). If I had my druthers, English wouldn't become so homogenized. 👁 Wink ;)
Would I be right in thinking it's most often heard (when heard) in the stock phrase If I had my druthers ... ?
That's certainly how I use it (which is not often, by the way).
I suspect that "if I had my druthers" moved from archaic regionalism into more widespread use due to the comic strip "Li'l Abner", which ran in newspapers throughout the US from 1934 to 1977(!).

The strip was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1956, and a film in 1959.
I just heard a respected political commentator say it on US TV, and he is definitely not over 60 years old.

He said about a political movement, "If they had their druthers…". I do think that is usually the construction used with this term.

I would say it is quite common in educated US speech even today. I use it, and have done so my whole adult life.
I've heard (and used) "if I had my druthers" my whole life. I have the impression that it comes from "I'd rather . . . ".
I've heard (and used) "if I had my druthers" my whole life. I have the impression that it comes from "I'd rather . . . ".

I Was looking for the means because of the following sentence:
"I believe he had had his druthers, he would not have married again at all.
-But he did not have his druthers, Griffin said softly."

And "free choice" seemed appropriate to the text. 👁 Smile :)
Back
Top Bottom