Comments on: Owly

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:00:05 +0000

I used the term when speaking to a British friend of mine about being owly (meaning cranky). He didn’t get the meaning. I’m from Minnesota and he currently lives in Florida. My parents (from Wisconsin and Illinois) use the term. Thanks for the explanation, because now I understand this is a colloquialism.

By: GEOFFREY LARSEN

GEOFFREY LARSEN — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 05:22:40 +0000

I learned “owly” from my parents who grew up in northern Illinois.

I once rescued an owl chick which had left its nest well before it was able to fly, probably by some accident. I tried to feed it, but it was extremely defensive, puffing up its down and attacking the proffered food. This behavior was unlike that of many other unfledged birds I had fed, which soon were eager to accept food. The “owl-let” ate after I left, but never stopped bristling and hissing at me. I surmised that the term “owly” had derived from this unpleasant disposition.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:58:45 +0000

I (and both my parents) grew up in Wisconsin. My mother uses owly in an apparently related sense, to refer to a mildly upset stomach, as in “I don’t think I’ll have any desert, my stomach is still a little owly”.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:10:30 +0000

Thank you so much for this explanation of “owly”.

I grew up in the Upper Ottawa Valley with its own distintive way of speaking and I still use this term almost 50 years later.

By: Nancy Stairs

Nancy Stairs — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:02:34 +0000

I grew up on PEI (near NS) and my parents used “owly” and I still do too. Nice to know about it, as having lived in OH and NC and western Canada I have gotten some funny looks when I used the term