huckle bearer

Huckle bearer is a nonexistent word that is claimed to have been used in the South to mean the same as 'pallbearer' during the 1800s. This is based on the claim that the term huckle referred to a coffin handle. This term was made up out of whole cloth by a 'historian' engaged in blatant speculation after the release of the movie Tombstone, where Doc Holliday, played by Val Kilmer, utters the famous line "I'm your huckleberry." The claim is that the real Doc Holliday said 'I'm your hucklebearer." Some also claim that this is the correct line from the movie. It is all complete nonsense. There is no evidence that this term ever existed. "I'm your huckleberry" is a well-attested English idiom that was used during the 1800s and is still used in some parts of the South today. It probably does not come from Mark Twain's character Huckleberry Finn since it seems to have existed before the novel was published. It means "I'm your man" or "I'm the man for the job."