"Fixin' to ____ "

"Fixin' to ____ "

When I lived in Texas I picked up on this curious phrase. As far as I know, it translates to "getting ready to _____". Does anyone know of its origin?

It translates just as you think. The "definitive record of the English language" appears not to list this usage, but I'm sure some dictionaries do. There's a cowboy dictionary, I think, of which I haven't a copy. If this locution is still alive in Texas I'm not too surprised. It's heyday, however, was the same as the heyday of cowboy stories in print and on the silver screen. I don't know whether it was ever a part of real cowboy lingo, but it may have been. Why this particular verb? It may be somewhat analogous to "fixing" dinner, that is, preparing it. SS

I don't know the origin. Except it no doubt relates to "fix" as in: 5 : to get ready : PREPARE. Fix lunch. And it is a country phrase.

Fix. Verb. To prepare to. To be about to. "I was fixin' to come and see you."

Also:
fixin's. Noun. Ingredients. "I would make cornbread if I had the fixin's."

From "Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech Based on the Research of Horace Kephart," edited by Harold J. Farwell Jr., and J. Karl Nicholas (University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., 1993).