"fixings"?

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My father and I were on the road to Augusta in the State of Maine to purchase the “fixings” needed for my graduation.

What does "fixings" mean here?

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Type: Question • Score: 7 • Views: 1,828 • Replies: 22

[+3] - Joe Nation - 02/28/2012Here it could mean the graduation garb, the gown and its peculiar hat called a mortar board. (It looks like something a mason could carry mortar on.)...

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@PennyChan,

Here it could mean the graduation garb, the gown and its peculiar hat called a mortar board. (It looks like something a mason could carry mortar on.)

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT0ShjmtcBqzm2eAoCFZBuHTwf3KWYZ30iegGG_H8oxUcTucwbcJg

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@PennyChan,

Wherewithall.

Or, clobber.

Joe(he's never wrong) Nation is right.

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@Joe Nation,

Thanks!

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Here in America, "fixings" usually refers to what goes with the main food you are serving.
"We're having Roast Turkey and all the fixings."
Fixings meaning all the potatoes, stewed onions, candied yams and giblet gravy and MORE that go with it.
You will also see it abbreviated as "fixin's" to reflect the more rural of our accents spoken here.
"Barbeque Chicken with all the Fixin's.....$12.99"

It can also be all the extra stuff you need to do anything:

"She threw a party in her backyard while all the balloons, streamers and other fixings."

"By the time he gathered up all the fixings he needed to make the sandbox for the kids, they were way too old to play in one."

Joe(Okay, that's enough fixings.)Nation

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@Joe Nation,

Or - if you live down here - (southern states) fixing is often used (incorrectly I am told) to advise of getting ready to go somewhere. As in "I am fixing to go to the store...you need anything?"

I admit I am guilty of using it - quite often.

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I'm afixin' to get ill with you for talkin' that way, Miss Mi . . .

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@Setanta,

You sound just like my papaw.

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That's just about what Miss Letty told me once't at Abuzz, many moons ago . . .

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@Setanta,

She'd be right, I'm a thinkin'.

1 Reply

@mismi,

Quote:

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where it will go

I'm filling the cracks that ran through the door
And kept my mind from wandering
Where it will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right
Where I belong I'm right
Where I belong.

See the people standing there who disagree and never win
And wonder why they don't get in my door
I'm painting my room in the colourful way

And when my mind is wandering
There I will go
And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong I'm right
Where I belong I'm right
Where I belong.

Silly people run around they worry me
And never ask me why they don't get past my door
I'm taking the time for a number of things
That weren't important yesterday
And I still go

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in
And stops my mind from wandering
Where it will go

This is sbout the only time we use fixing over here. Where you would use it to describe all the extras that go with a meal, we would use the word 'trimmings.'

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@izzythepush,

We use it that way too Izzy...I guess I use it more as "I'm about to" or "getting ready to" more than anything. Apparently it is as ingrained into my conversations as "bless his/her heart". I'm told that one is not appropriate either.

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@mismi,

It's not always inappropriate, but I tend to be skeptical when I hear it.

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@mismi,

We've all got our own speech patterns that sound a little strange outside our locale. I've just had a chat with OmSigDave over my use of the phrase 'there's better things to spend money on.' He asked why I hadn't written 'there are' or 'there're' instead. It's because of how I speak, I would say 'there are,' if I was thinking about it, but I'd never say 'there're.' ' There's' may be wrong in that instance, but it's how I talk.

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Country Joe McDonald, "I feel like i'm fixin' to die rag":

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@roger,

Of course it is usually used when someone is struggling with something or when I am feeling bad for a situation a person has gotten themselves into. I do not mean "what an idiot", as some say it's meant to mean.

I suppose it could be a sign of pity or feeling sorry for someone. But just because someone doesn't want to be felt sorry for doesn't mean I am being mean spirited. I try not to use it now - but sometimes have an embarrassed moment when I do.

Hate that hot flush of my face when I slip.

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@izzythepush,

Quote:

We've all got our own speech patterns that sound a little strange outside our locale. I've just had a chat with OmSigDave over my use of the phrase 'there's better things to spend money on.' He asked why I hadn't written 'there are' or 'there're' instead. It's because of how I speak, I would say 'there are,' if I was thinking about it, but I'd never say 'there're.' ' There's' may be wrong in that instance, but it's how I talk.

I agree.

I love the differences.

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@Setanta,

I saw him a couple of years ago playing in a pub in Somerton, Somerset. Also on the bill was Chris Jagger, Mick's brother. The second most famous resident of Mudgely after Wilkin's cider.

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@izzythepush,

Quote:

I've just had a chat with OmSigDave over my use of the phrase 'there's better things to spend money on.' He asked why I hadn't written 'there are' or 'there're' instead. It's because of how I speak, I would say 'there are,' if I was thinking about it, but I'd never say 'there're.' ' There's' may be wrong in that instance, but it's how I talk.

It's not wrong at all, Izzy. It's completely natural. Existential 'there' with singular verb + plural delayed subject is much preferred in all spoken/written English. A study of spoken discourse by Celce-Murcia and Hudson in 1981 "confirmed that there's predominates in informal speech, even when a plural noun phrase follows the verb".

When you "think about it", it isn't natural language at all. You've seen OmSig "think" about language issues and when he does, he's pretty much always out to lunch.

I long ago said, English speakers do their language much much better than they analyse their language.

1 Reply

@mismi,

Quote:

Or - if you live down here - (southern states) fixing is often used (incorrectly I am told) to advise of getting ready to go somewhere. As in "I am fixing to go to the store...you need anything?"

I admit I am guilty of using it - quite often.

You're only guilty of one thing, Mismi, using perfectly natural English. The people who tell you that it's incorrect are people who know nothing about language. Rules for language are made by the people who use language.

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