Comments on: Owly

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 02:12:15 +0000

I heard it as a synonym for grumpy as a child in northern Minnesota.

By: David Lewis

David Lewis — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 07:51:59 +0000

My parents and grandparents, all from Minnesota,
used the term “Owly” in regards to stormy weather.
We spent a lot of time on a lake and when it looked as if it would come up and be stormy, windy and wet, my dad would say “It’s looking owly out, better stay indoors.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 20:13:35 +0000

I am from Wisconsin, too, and used this word often. It’s pretty common in this neck of the woods. (another idiom, eh?)

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 15:21:16 +0000

We are from Saskatchewan (also Canadian Prairies) and we have ‘Owly’ as being out of sorts and CRAB as well. I wasn’t sure how to spell it, or if it was a word or not. Loved this site and the explanation. LOVE Geoffrey L’s story about his owly owl! Go Geoff!

By: Allan

Allan — Thu, 22 May 2014 23:28:04 +0000

My parents grew up on the Canadian Prairie – Manitoba – and brought this phrase with them to BC where I was born. I had no idea it wasn’t in the dictionary until my spell-check pointed this fact out to me. It’s not on the online dictionary I frequently use, either. Where does it come from? Lucky thing I found it here! Thank you, Word Detective. I’m a little closer to my Prairie roots.

By: Scott Swanson

Scott Swanson — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:04:47 +0000

I came here looking for an etymology as a friend of mine had posted a picture of an owl. I grew up in northwest Iowa, and it was a term that seemed to be common in my family. I want to say that “owly” was slightly different from “crabby”, but I cannot say how, when, or where.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 21:51:19 +0000

Apparently “owly” has made its way to the Great Plains. I’m in Nebraska, I use it, and fellow Nebraskans understand it this way.

I’d add that someone who’s owly is in that kind of mood where nothing can please them.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 16:25:06 +0000

I too wrote “owly” yesterday and felt bound to add that it was a term from my Wisconsin mother many years ago. Interesting.

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.