Do you know these 10 Amish terms? (Quiz # 5)
It’s been about 9 months since our last Amish words quiz, which tells me time flies.
You’ve been consistently impressive in your previous answers, so I keep trying to make each new quiz slightly more difficult.
Each of the 10 terms below has some connection or meaning related to the Amish. If you know the meaning of one, a few, or all, let us know in the comments.
And if you’d like to view previous quizzes, here they are: 1 2 3 4
Amish Terms Quiz # 5
1. Nine Times Around the World
2. Dienerversammlungen
3. School Echoes
4. Ava
5. Abrot
6. Anabel
7. AMMF
8. Number 2s
9. Dumping station
10. Guengerich book
Can’t say that I do.
I’ll take a guess at a few of them.
1. A quilt pattern
2. Amish church conferences held in the 1800’s
3. Amish teachers publication in northern Indiana
4. Amish settlement in Illinois
5. I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with church
service, maybe sermon
8. pencils
9. location where Amish farmers take their milk to be collected
by a milk truck
only two I would guess at is
1. quilt pattern
4. A praise or greeting
Wild guess on Guengerich Book
This is a VERY wild guess. Our friend, the late Hugh Gingerich, of Silver Spring, MD, who had a doctorate in mathematics, had an unusual hobby. He compiled a book on Amish genealogy, having had Amish grandparents. He said the work was wonderfully challenging because of a relatively small number of surnames and the variants in spelling of first names and nicknames. He loved puzzles like that. He told me a wonderful story of an Amish woman who didn’t like her given name, Dorcas. Because either the Gospel of Luke or one of Paul’s letters refers to “Dorcas, also known as Tabitha,” the woman declared that from now on, she wanted to be known as Tabitha.
Quiz
I was able to figure out some of them, but not all. 🙂
#1 Nine Times Around the World is a very graphic quilt pattern designed in the Lancaster area. It’s also called Sunshine and Shadow.
#2Diener-Versammlungen was the title generally given to a series of conferences held annually (except 1877) by the Amish congregations of the United States from 1862 to 1878. Their purpose was to reconcile certain differences in religious practice that had developed during this time among the different congregations because of their settlements being scattered and isolated throughout the north central states, and also because of the influx during the early part of the 19th century of Amish immigrants from Alsace and South Germany whose religious customs were somewhat different from those common among the Pennsylvania brethren, who had arrived in the 18th century.
#4 AVA means an American viticultural area
#5 An Abrot is a Minister’s council held before every preaching session where the ministers discuss issues that need to be addressed
#6 Anabel may refer to the Amish settlement at Anabel,Missouri
#7 AMMF refers to the Amish Mutual Mortgage Fund
#9 Dumping Station is where milk is taken by horse and buggy rather than having a modern truck come to the farm and pick up milk.
#10 is the Ausbund
#8
1. Quilt pattern
2. Conferences held in the 1800s
3. Magazine published by Amish children in Goshen, IN
4. Amish community in MO near Mansfield
5.
6. This is also a community in MO
7. Amish Mutual Mortgage Fund
8. Pencils
9. Where Amish “dump” their milk from their dairy operation
10. Another name for the Ausbund
Not positive about a couple of them…lol! But, this was fun!
No clue, save #3
I have no clue, so I’m just going to be silly with meanings for a laugh.
1. Nine Times Around the World: The daily grind, “Went Nine Times Around The World again today, geesh”
2. Dienerversammlungen: A general murmering at a Church service when the person giving the sermon has kind of lost his train of thought and the community is bored
3. School Echoes: Actually, this one won’t be silly, I think this might be a reference to Report Cards. Upon thinking about it, it does make sense.
4. Ava: Heard when an Amish person might be straying from straying from the Ordnug “Ava been obeying the rule?”
5. Abrot: not a particularly thrilling thing to hear in Amish families, “honey, Abrot this home, I thought it useful” when it really isn’t
6. Anabel: Slang for the most attractive unmarried or um-matched up girl of rumspringa age, conversely the best breeding female of any given breed of animal on the farm
7. AMMF; A polite way of swearing when an English wants a picture snapped when the family is out.
8. Number 2s: Lets just say it is what comes naturally
9. Dumping station: Slang for any given location on a host family’s property during their scheduled church service where the gossip that goes on before or after church
10. Guengerich book: An Amish children’s coloring book
These were some REALLY creative guesses Shom.
SHOM.. Awesome guesses! Got a great chuckle out them!
I am totally clueless other than the Quilt Pattern.. I’ve heard of it before.. and I’ve heard the term Abrot but dont know what it is off the top of my head..
Obviously lots of folks looked them up.. I’ll trust their sources.
Some good answers/guesses so far. I will hold off from commenting just yet except to say I learned about #1 from Janneken Smucker’s recent book 🙂
OK, so what's the Ausbund?
So my wild guess was far afield. However, now I need to know what the Ausbund is.
Reply to "OK, so what's the Ausbund"
Forsythia:
The Ausbund is the Plain Anabaptist Hymnal. To my undestanding, the ‘hymns’ are often stories about Anabaptist martys. Here are a couple of stanzas that I found from “The Mirror of the Martyrs”:
‘My dearest son:
God dwells with those people
Who are despised by the world.
Join in fellowship with them.
They will direct you in the right path,
Lead you away from evil ways,
Lead you away from hell.
-Stanzas 12 and 14, Hymn No. 18 Ausbund [this is about the martyr Anneken]’
‘O LORD, thou art our shield,
We turn to Thee.
FOr us it is a minor pain
When they take our lives.
In Eternity, Thou hast prepared for us,
So when we suffer shame and stress here
It is not for nothing. [We will be amply repaid]
-Stanza 6, Hymn No.61, Ausbund’
Hope this helps!
Aw, SHOM, as usual, you’re a hoot!
I’m stumped for most of them but I do know #4 (Ava) is both the name of my “older” (almost 3) Granddaughter, and also a place (but not in Illinois, I don’t think–that’s Arthur). I got a fruitcake from an Abbey there this past Christmas…HONEST! I’ll defer to Margaret for the (my opinion) correct answers. I didn’t know Ava was an Amish settlement, though. (At least I don’t think I did! Hey, it’s really cold here today, and my brain cells are just thawing out!)
(Which brings me to question how the Amish cope with severe winter weather—especially -20 + degree actual temps. How do they keep themselves & their animals from getting hypothermia? Frozen pipes? Etc.?)
There is an Ava, Illinois. I think there is an Amish community there also.
Marcus Yoder
Ava, Illinois
Ava is in the news in an article titled, “Amish Business Burns in Ava,” with a 1-minute video clip. “Rubble is all that remains of a sizeable Ava warehouse that used to house the Amish business “Kuntry Kettle”. It produced apple butters and jams.”
http://www.wsiltv.com/news/local/Amish-Business-Burns-in-Ava-241986071.html
The creative guesses to the quiz are more amusing than the correct answers!
Ava, IL Amish settlement
Saw that story this morning Linda, and that inspired Ava’s entry, though not a happy event for those people. The article said losses of $400K+.
http://www.wsiltv.com/news/local/Amish-Business-Burns-in-Ava-241986071.html
The community at Ava IL is the second oldest in the state (1991), 2 church districts as of 2013, and I believe is a New Order group.
B so far
Looks like there we’re at 8 of 10 correct answers in the comments. I’ll share the correct ones tomorrow if no one gets them all by then.
Thanks to Karen Pollard and Margaret, and my own answer to #10,
here is my revised list:
1. A quilt pattern
2. Amish church conferences held in the 1800’s
3. Amish teachers and children’s publication from northern Ind.
4. Amish community in Illinois.
5. Minister’s council before preaching in an Amish church service.
6. Amish community in Missouri.
7. Amish Mutual Mortgage Fund
8. Pencils
9. Location where Amish dairy farmers take their milk to be collected by a milk truck
10. An Amish hymnal, but maybe not the Ausbund
I always enjoy these quizzes; also the quizzes where you have pictures from different settlements.
Quiz # 5 Answer Key
Here are your answers, many of yours were either right on the head or close. Thanks to all who took a crack.
1. Nine Times Around the World – Name used in Lancaster County for a quilt pattern called “Sunshine and Shadow” by collector Jonathan Holstein (see J. Smucker, Amish Quilts, p. 80)
2. Dienerversammlungen- meetings held among traditional and progressive-minded leaders of Amish congregations in the 1860s and 1870s meant to reduce tensions and restore unity. (see S. Nolt, A History of the Amish Chapter 7).
3. School Echoes- “children’s paper” published in northern Indiana, seeking to support Amish and plain parochial schools
4. Ava- small Amish community in southern Illinois
5. Abrot- meeting between ministers at the start of an Amish church service. Ministers rise while congregation sings first song, lasts around 20 minutes; who will preach is among the things discussed (see Kraybill, Johnson-Weiner, Nolt, The Amish, p. 80-81)
6. Anabel- small Amish community in Macon County, Missouri
7. AMMF- Amish Mutual Mortgage Fund, revolving fund created in the Nappanee Amish community in 1990 to help young couples buy a first home (see Nolt, Myers, Plain Diversity, p. 96)
8. Number 2s- local name for more conservative churches in the Geauga County, OH settlement
9. Dumping station- for bulk milk dumping, seen in communities with restrictive Ordnung. Allows low-technology groups such as Swartzentruber Amish to ship grade A milk (see K. Johnson-Weiner, New York Amish, p. 199 Chapter 3 footnote #27)
10. Guengerich book- another name for the Unparteiische Liedersammlung, a variation of the Ausbund hymnal. Iowa Amishman Samuel D. Guengerich edited this book which led to the name (see Nolt, Meyers, Plain Diversity, p. 197 Chapter 1 footnote #6)
Thanks for the answers, Erik. Looks like you had us all stumped on number 8.
I enjoyed looking up answers in various sources to ones I didn’t know. I found my answer to number 10 in the Pathway Publishers Book Catalog. There the book is listed as “Liedersammlung G (das Gingerich Buch)”. I think this is the same book, even though “Guengerich” is spelled differently.
Fun fun!! Thanks as always for the glimpse inside the world of the Amish..
Mark's answers
I didn’t know any of these Amish terms. I read the list to my son, Mark, who is Amish. He didn’t know the quilt pattern but I think he knew all of the others. He said that his community uses the Gingerich Buch for their hymnal instead of the Ausbund. It has some of the old Ausbund hymns plus some others in German that are more easily adapted to the fast tunes they use for Sunday School and the singings. Also, he said that Diener Versammlung does not refer to a particular ministers’ meeting. Translated from German it simply means “Servants coming together.” Amish ministers are referred to as “Servants of the Book.” Anytime they come together for a meeting it is a “Diener Versammlung.” The New Order ministers and bishops come together for Diener Versammlung twice a year in the spring and later summer near the times of Communion. If you want to speak of a particular Diener Versammlung then you need to include the date of the meeting which group of Amish ministers was coming together.
Ah, I see, interesting!
I like these quizes because we learn from each other, which is nice. Good job all!
Ava is also near an Amish community in MO…I’ve been there! 🙂
Do you think perhaps at setting a vocabulary PDF-to-grow with all these quizzes ? It could be a nice booklet to some PA common terms 🙂
Just an idea !