sabby

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

(Corrupted from the Spanish saber, to know.) To know; to comprehend. A word of very extensive use wherever a Lingua Franca has been formed of the Spanish or Portuguese language in Asia, Africa, and America. It is used by the negroes in some of the Southern States.


When I read these stories, the negroes looked delighted, and said: "We savey dat well, misses."--Carmichael's West Indies.

TO SAW. To hoax; to play a joke upon one. A western term. In the State of Maine, to saw means to scold.