cheer
A chair, said the mountain way.
Also called chair.
Updated September 21, 2026
cheer pronunciation
/CHEER/
Meaning
In Appalachian and older rural Southern speech, cheer is how chair comes out. Same furniture, different vowel. "Pull up a cheer" means sit down and stay a spell, not break into a pep yell. Outsiders write it that way to catch the sound. Locals just talk.
How folks use it
- “Come on in and pull up a cheer.”
- “Set that wet coat on the cheer by the stove so it can dry.”
Origin and etymology
A Scots-Irish and older English vowel shape that stuck in mountain talk. Dialect writers have spelled chair as cheer for generations to show how it sounds on the porch. Related mountain spellings show up in words like far for fire.
Frequently asked questions
Does cheer mean something different from a chair?
No. It is the same seat. The word just wears a mountain pronunciation.