Funny, odd, or unique words or phrases you've heard while on vacation.

Myrtle Beach - grocery store. I asked if they sold wine. The lady said "we sure don't."

People in the northeast refer to fountains as bubblers. It's not an anomalous saying if you're a resident.

What is incorrect or odd about saying "you can't get there from here" or "we sure don't"?

while visiting friends in texas, my daughter, then @ 4 yrs. old asked where Luke (her playmate and son of people we were visiting...) was. she was told he was 'in yonder' (meaning a different room than the one we were in). she then asked, "Which room is 'yonder'?" she knew there was a living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. and she wanted to know which room was the 'yonder room'...

Visiting relatives in Georgia.
We were talking about going to the store. One of the relatives said that he would "carry" me there..
I love to hear different ways of expressing things. I used to think there was more of these sayings in the south but thats because I had never been much of anywhere be fore I moved to California

Boston, someone asked if I was a "taurus" and I said, no I'm a Virgo.
They actually meant "tourist" not my zodiac sign.

Baltimore, I'd left my car lights
"owen" turns out I'd left them "on".

Adelaide, Australia, Invitation to a "fancy dress" party. Imagine my surprise to learn (too late) that fancy dress is costume party not tuxedos.

Here in New Orleans we have lots of phrases that seem to exist only here.

LOL, Jon, hope you told the Aussies that you had come as Fred Astaire!

I'm from the Northeast, and never, ever heard the term bubbler until a friend from Boston mentioned it recently.

My English friend said she had to stop saying she was going to knock someone up (go visit) when she moved to the states.
Here in New England we were surprised that mid-Westerners didn't put jimmies on their ice cream. I grew up here but I was shocked to hear my MIL refer to putting the baby down, meaning making a child take a nap. I thought only old animals were put down. She also refers to a poor section of town as 'the pig's ear' and my fil refers to holes as big enough to swing a cat through.
A friend from Boston who went to college in Madison WI told friends she was going to the party; they thought she was saying going to the potty. While traveling some of the South Carolina islands we almost turned around because we saw a sign that said "bridge is open when lights are flashing". The lights weren't flashing so that meant the bridge was closed ... which I finally figured meant it was "open" for traffic because the draw bridge was "closed" (down).

In Pennsylvania Dutch areas they "Outen the lights" (turn off the lights) and "red up the room" (clean up).

My mother (native New Englander of British descent) always said, "Chock-a-block full." Which I never heard again until I worked in Germany with a group of Brits. Of course I grew up with bubbler, tonic, frappe, and so forth. But I was amazed at how quickly "y'all" became a part of my vocab when I lived with Southerners.

I once had a friend from Boston who referred to a trash can as a "rubbish barrel."

Lolly, took me a while to get used to the Southern, "We sure don't." They get your hopes up with that "sure."

At an auction on Cape Cod, I bought a small outdoor statue, and someone told me I should clean it with a "shop knife." I kept asking what kind of shop knife until I realized he was saying "sharp knife."

second grade student moving from New Zealand talking about her father buying her a block of chocolate... or as we call it, a candy bar -

Julia - your friend from Boston called trash a 'rubbish barrel'. In Britain, we call the 'trash' rubbish. So the trash can is the 'rubbish bin'. It is called garbage as well - (that might be one we got from the USA!) but rubbish is the usual term. I wonder if other Boston words/phrases sound like our British terms?

I usually get odd looks in the U.S. when I ask directions to the "washroom". Then I remember to change it to "restroom".

I'm from Tennessee, so a lot of the phrases that have already been mentioned "we sure don't" and "fixin' to go (do something)" are part of my normal vocabulary. Traveler24's comment about relatives from Georgia "carrying" him to the store reminded me of something. I lived in rural west Tennessee for a couple of years (I now live in Knoxville - east Tennessee). People there would say "who is he going to carry to the dance" or "who does she carry", which meant "who will he be taking as his date to the dance" or "who does she date". I always thought that was the strangest little phrase. It's funny how one part of a Tennessee has completely different phrases than another.

A co-worker of mine (from Texas) ordered a glass of iced tea and the waitress brought her a glass of wine. My Texas friend said, "no ma'am, I ordered a glass of ICED TEA". The Waitress (from Wisconsin) thought she had said "Asti".

While vacation in Jamaica, I overheard a couple of Philly mentioning they were going to eat at "noon -thirty".

My New Zealand friend & co-worker once asked me, in front of the entire office, if I had a rubber. I asked what she meant ..and she pointed to her eraser on her pencil.

Colette -
The exact same thing happened to my hubby in Denver 25 yrs ago! Pyrenees Restaurant... we're from Texas, in Denver for wedding. when he ordered iced tea, the waiter said, "Very good choice of wine, sir". we looked at each other, wondering what the waiter meant... it wasn't until a few years later (when we started drinking wine), that i realized what had happened!

Hawaii has loads of different expressions; some from the Hawaiian lanuguage and others from the sharing use of words between different cultures. The one that seemed the oddest when I first moved here was the use of plurals for words like stuff, junk, and shrimp...as in "can you move your stuffs out of the hall?", or "we have a special on shrimps tonight".
Rubbish is also the term for trash here...and in a cute custom, at Christmas time everyone leaves a case of beer out on the curb for their rubbish men.

I do hope everyone posting here realizes that it's all relative -- people in Boston or from Wisconsin aren't any more odd or peculiar than people from Texas. To someone in Wisconsin, of course they're going to bring you "Asti" if you order "ahss-tee" instead of iced tea; and to someone in Boston, it sounds very strange indeed to hear someone refer to the rubbish or the trash barrel as a "bin." A "bin" is what you keep flour or dog food in, for example.

And do you put your groceries ("grocheries" in the midwest) in a paper bag or a sack?

My mother used to remark on those "funny" people from the south who referred to nylons or as she called them "stockings," as "hose." "A hose is what you water the gahden with, for pity's sake."

By the way, the "you can't get there from here" quote is a very old one from a series of stories in the Maine dialect recorded by some Yale Divinity students, called "Bert and I." I seriously doubt that ladyjess's in-laws were told that with any seriousness at all but maybe a distant reference to that old story.

And in the South, "fixin' to" means preparing to do something, and "get me...." is something semi-literate people say in rural places all over the country. And yes, no one in Wisconsin refers to a fountain as a "bubbler" unless they grew up in New England.

To my ears, it seems to me a good way to identify a southerner is hearing someone accent the first syllable in "insurance" and "umbrella," and Texans seem to drop the "R" in "through" as in go "thu" the door. To them I probably sound weird and maybe stuck up if I say "thru". Some New Yorkers have gotten on my case about standing IN line, waiting FOR people, and getting change FOR a dollar, when they are absolutely sure it's standing ON line, waiting ON someone (which I think you only do as a restaurant employee), and getting change OF a dollar.

The sad part, for me, is that the more we learn our language from TV and movies, the more the same we get from coast to coast. But no one region is the standard against which other people's ways are funny, odd or weird.

I grew up in WI and called a water fountain a bubbler.

Soccr:
My in-laws were seriously told that "you can't get there from here" when they were in Maine. My husband was told the same thing a few times when he spent 5 years in Maine. The guy I dated from Wisconsin never lived in New England, and therefore didn't pick up the term "bubbler" there. To say that some one is "simi-literate" because they say "get me" is an incorrect assumption. My co-worker was very intellegent.
I ment this thread to have some humor, but I guess you missed that. I was simply trying to see what people in different parts of the country say in every day conversation. I was in no way trying to put down or demean anyone.

yesterday i called for a car insurance rate in los angeles - the man on the other end told me 'welcome home' because he could tell from speaking to me that i was a SoCal native.
he did, however, note that i have picked up 'y'all'

In Maine they call it a "garbage can", and on Saturdays they eat "beans and frankfoots". If you ask them if a certain hot dog stand has "good franks", they'll say they're "wicked good ova theyah".

"take a leak" is a New England term, I think.

I miss the bubblers of New England. In North Carolina, some of the expressions I thought were funny are "mash" for press, eg. "could you mash 7" on the elevator. "Cut the lights" means turn them off and "Mama just stood up and fell out", I want to say fell out of what but they mean she fainted. My first shocker was already mentioned,,, the positive-negative... as in "we sure don't have that item'... talk about confusing me.

Lady Jess, it may be that your in-laws didn't get just how dry Mainiac humor can be. I have numerous friends and relatives all over the state, and they like to say that (quoting "Bert and I" or, after all these years, each other) if trying to give directions to someplace turns out to be very convoluted and difficult to explain to someone unfamiliar with the (often unmarked) roads up there. It's like saying, "gee whiz, it's really hard to tell you how to get there, so I give up."

Apparently I was wrong about the "bubbler," but "get me" is an example of what used to be called the "mucker pose" in someone who knows better than to say that but does to be folksy -- like using "ain't," which most people know isn't correct but they use it anyway to seem unpretentious.

Collette -- you picked up some of the phrases that struck me when I moved here! I think "fell out" can also mean something like breaking up with laughter, too, or being so stunned that one loses composure. "That was so funny, when I saw that, I just fell out."

OK, so where do they say "so don't I" instead of "so do I"?

Bennie - I've lived in the Boston area for most of my life and was pretty aware of the differences in how we speak from the rest of the country. But I never knew that saying "rubbish" was unique to this area. Doesn't everyone say rubbish?

Never thought saying putting the baby down sounded odd either - its just short for putting the baby down for a nap.

Here's a few others, some you've heard before and one or two may be new:

Tonic=soda

frappe=milk shake (does a milk shake have ice cream?)

jimmies=sprinkles

rubbish=trash (not garbage because years ago there used to be two pickups. One for rubbish which was paper, glass etc and one for food waste or garbage. The food waste was put in the garbage can which was inbedded in your backyard and had a very heavy metal lid on it that had a lever that you stepped on to open. The worst job in the world for a kid was to have to bring out the garbage.)

a rubber band = an elastic

restroom = basement (I mostly used this while in school)

water fountain = bubbler

Every section of New Enlgand has its own unique expressions - there was a very funny series of readio commercials on just this topic. Rhode Island is a real source of oddball stuff - like the expression "calm your liver" to mean settle down or don't get excited.

English One - Its well established by linguistic experts that the Boston accent is a derivative of certain London accents. Not surprising that some words or phrases are shared also. But I always thought that the guy in England who picked up the rubbish was a "dustman" - like that old song "My Old Man's a Dustman".

The people in NC laugh at me when I say I am "going to the market"... they say grocery store . The person who mentioned some unique Rhode Island expressions is right... how about "not for nothin " and to indicate something is out of the way or far away I used to hear the expression, "it's in East Gagudia' My closet is full of "hangas" and yes I use elastics not rubber bands.

Collette - I bet you order a cabinet not a frappe and definately not a milkshake.

Not for nuthin is another good one you hear up hear alot.

By the way - I think not for nuthin is the NE version of the southern "I'll tell yew whaat" - my southern transplant brother is always saying that.

There is not a particular location but I've always thought it funny when someone asks me if I'm going to "get down from the car" meaning to get out of the car. I always think, how far up are we?

Bennie , you're right... I always have a cabinet, coffee, if you please. It goes good with grinders... RI people do not eat hoagies, or subs but prefer grinders.. wonder where that came from?

Many years ago, while working in Providence, a co-worker said they were going out for a cabinet. They asked if I wanted one. Of course, I looked at them like they were nuts.

Upon their return, I asked them , "Why didn't you tell my you were getting a frappe". It was their turn to look a tme like I was nuts.

Now that I'm in Maryland, I have to ask for a milkshake. Growing up in boston, asking for a milkshake meant no ice cream was added. (Note: the ice cream is much better in New England.)

How about, hot dog, frankfurter, weiners?

In NYC they are subs or heros, but where I grew up (an hour north of NYC) we called them "wedges".

TO SOCCR: This was a fun site until I read your "semi-literate" remark. I have a Master's Degree and therefore am not semi-literate. And I am always 'fixin' ta get me' whatever. Thanks lady jess for clearing that up as well. People in the North are 'going with' when they will accompany someone, this is not illiterate, it's called local jargon. Being a displaced NYer the one that still gets me is "borry" said bah-rie, for borrow. Like, can I borry a dollar?
OK as for being a northerner in the South, I get looks when I say "Is that correct?" Instead of "is that right?', every now and then 'you guys' comes out instead of 'ya'll' and if I am speaking to a female, I am informed that she is not a guy. Some of my NY relatives call it "you's guys". These kinds of things is what makes our country unique.

Usung the term "nylons" mentioned by soccr always struck me as odd since i see that as a type of textile rather than a clothing item. I always use "hose" or hosiery when referring to what is now out of fashion anyway. (Young gals now go barelegged for the most part, at least in CA)

What's with purse and handbag? I used to use purse until I became friends with a gal who works in a department store and now I refer to it as handbag. People think that's odd too.

Suuuuz,
"Gal"? You originally from Iowa?

I worked w/ a guy from Iowa for years and he was always using the term "gal".
Or guess who also uses it now from time to time?

I'm orig. from Pittsburgh so I really have no room to talk about our own language! People in SoCal were always wondering about my "Jumbo sandwiches" (aka: a bologna sandiwich) when I first arrived from The Pitt. Now I REALLY do eat jumbo sandwiches!

Also, have you ever gone "up to" Los Angeles or "gone down to" Redding from here?

And when you're driving "up to" LA, did you stop and "put gas" and have to wait "on line" for a gas faucett?
Kalumbo

My East Texas grandmother once asked me to "cut off yon air conditioner".

some i can think of...
"wedge"..upstate new york for a hero, sub, or hoagie.
"get away out of that"...an irish expression when they are surprised by news, like "get out of here!"
"come 'round"...england, to invite someone over. here in ny we say come over.
"chock a block"...irish/english for when something is busy, packed...i.e the theatre is chock a block.

top random phrase...someone once was trying to explain that something wouldn't make sense if we did it that way, and said "it'd be like a duck staring at thunder". haven't been able to top that one. : )

Don't know how "odd" or "unique" this is, but it always strikes me as amusing. In Wisconsin they say that they are "going by so and so's house." This means they are going to stop there, but it always sounds to me like they are going to just drive by the house.

My Wisconsin relatives never understand what the heck I'm talking about when I mention this to them, though.

Hey Kal, can't use girl as it sounds to young, woman sounds too old so I adopted gal a while ago. Can't use dudette can I?

If you live in Redding or north of Redding and you travel south you are going "down below". This could mean you are going to Redding, SF or Sacto. This always cracks me up. So I have always wondered below what? Lake Shasta?

I've always loved the variations of our language in different sections of the country. Even within a state there are amazing differences...
For example, the plural of you is "youse" in Philadelphia and "yinz" (you ones) in parts of western PA. (Hey, I know you is both singular and plural, but there really should be some difference, don't you think?)

Supposedly, most of the differences are attributable to the original regional settlements and are therefore slowly dying out due to "television voices", but if you hear someone say that they're going to senner siddy you can bet that they're going to downtown Philadelphia. (Maybe they'll have some cawfee or wooder down there.)

Oh, and they're hoagies here!

arkansasnurse:
Thank you for your comment to Soccr. I guess he has nothing better to do than to pick apart and criticize what I have posted.

Soccr:
Get a life and quit telling me what happened to my in-laws, you weren't there. Just because you know people in Maine, doesn't make you an expert on what they say. You must be the type of person who must be correct no matter what. Quit being such a jerk and relize what this tread is; a humerous look at our wonderful country.

Theladyjess - Soccr is not trying to give you a hard time. To tell someone "you can't get there from here" is a stereotypical Maine type of answer and usually is meant as a joke - especially when told with a straight face.

This is a fun thread and thank you for starting it but lets keep it light as you originally intended.

Hoageys, subs, torpedoes, grinders...I love them all not matter what "language"!!!
Kal

My in-laws are from northern Pennsylvania. When they go to a town north of theirs, they are traveling "up the line," to a town south of theirs, they are going "down the line." If the stereo is up too loud, my MIL will ask you to "slower" it. When we go up to bed at night, my husband is always telling me to "close the lights." He also likes to go to the "food store" instead of the "grocery store." I used to live in the South and rapidly picked up and held onto the expression "y'all." However, I now catch myself starting to say "youse" which I really hate the sound of for some reason, but my NE PA husband says it frequently. I was a military brat and spent time on both coasts as well as the Mid West. I have gotten used to getting funny looks from people over what I say, depending on where in the country I am at the time and what expression I am using. What a country!

My Parents-in-law and husband say 'slow up'. I think that sounds so funny. I say slow down (press the brake pedal down) and speed up (pull up in an airplane). It just doesn't make sense to me to say 'slow up' and 'speed up'.

My guess is that it comes from horse riding where you pull the reins to slow down....?

Slow up.

I thought of another one. I have an uncle in NY state who is a yankee redneck, this is said with much love and respect. He says all the time when your messing with something you shouldn't, " Don't monkey with that." My born and bred in the south kids had no clue what he meant and even told him they were not monkeys. He gave them a "Dutch Rub" and we all laughed. has anyone else ever received that form of affection? If need be I will explain later. U R welcome ladyjess.

Wow - I tell my kids to stop monkeying around all the time. I never knew I spoke so oddly. Thread has been an eye opener.

And I am just starting to think of all the phrases my Irish mom and dad use that you never hear anyone in the US say (except of course another Irishman). Like "cut the cudology" meant stop monkeying around.

My mother is half-Cajun and occasionally comes up with stuff she would hear from her mother or other relatives whose first language was French. For example, when we get together we make sure to "pass a good time", and try to avoid making my grouchy cousin "boudée" (Mom says her mom used it to mean "sulky"). Everyone is called "cher(e)" ("dear")-- kinda like how in Baltimore everyone's called "hon".

I just remembered another one. I watch two kids from Canada. When they want supreme pizza (pizza w/ all the toppings), they ask for pizza that is "all dressed". Their mom says "eh" unstead of "huh".

"Being impaled by a rod of frozen urine expelled from a jetliner" meaning killed.

Jackisback...huh, I don't quite get that one. Anyway, I like this thread too. Another one I've heard down South that I never heard in RI is "cut a man". I was asking a patient about domestic violence and she told me she would "cut a man" if she had to. And this is not an expression but along the ame vein. My Southern country office mate put her little boy on speaker phone so I could say hello. I talked to him in my usual RI accent and he later asked " Momma, why was that lady talkin Spanish!"

Bennie - yup, the men who pick up your rubbish are called Dustmen! They used to pick up your 'dustbin' but now they are the big 'wheelie bins'. ('rubbish bin' is a domestic bin you might keep in the kitchen). What american word I like is 'dumpster', much better than the word we use ('skip')

All this talk of rubbish makes me want a nice shower ;O)

Here are a few of my favorites I've encountered in the South:

I'm just pickin' = I'm just teasing.

Wreck = Car accident.

He's a mess = He's a character.

That's nasty = That's unclean.

I wouldn't pick him off a Christmas tree = I wouldn't date him if he were the last man on earth.

i went to school in maryland where those sandwiches are "subs" but now i'm in new york where i'm crazy if i call the "heros" a "sub."

in toronto, i asked for a soda and got an ice cream soda. turns out they call a coca-cola "pop" and what i call an ice cream soda they call "soda."

On Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada you are "from away" if you were not born there. So, you often hear people say "He's not from around here, he's from away." And, if someone has a heart attack or stroke they say "She took a heart attack." Or, "He took a stroke." They also use "right" as in "The dinner was right good." (very good) Probably derives from England as in The Right Honorable....

In New England I've seen pita-bread sandwiches called "Dagwoods", and they go out to "supper" not out to "dinner".

A woman dressed to the nines is considered "all dolled up".

When I was in North Dakota they referred to lunch as dinner and dinner as supper. It was very confusing to me, I was 10 at the time.

As a Iowa teen I worked in a campground ... one of my first customers in the camp store came in and asked if we had any soda.....

Well being an Iowan, I went and retrieved the baking soda for them. I noticed a quizzical look on their faces and they said a drink, you know Pepsi etc. .... ohhh well I quickly learned that "POP" wasn't the norm! As a midwesterner, rarely does anyone call a soda pop a SODA its all POP here....

Moved from Canada to Massachusetts...
In Boston a liquor store is called a "package store" or "packie",
a purse is called a pocketbook, many people often say "So didn't I, so wasn't I" etc.; very strange.
They say "wicked" instead of really ex. "wicked good".

Back to the "iced tea" comments earlier.

We have problems asking for "tea" and forgetting to say that we mean "HOT tea". To us northerners (Canada) - "tea" always means hot, and "iced tea" only if specifically said means the cold drink.

Lots of fun reading the comments/slang/phrases though that jog our memories to experiences in different parts of the country.

While growing up in Mass it was always license plates on a car.

I get to Maryland and now it's tags.

I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life, and I've always heard the term "bubbler" used for a water fountain--I don't think that term is native to New England. We also drink "soda" instead of soda pop or cola, and stop lights are sometimes referred to as "stop and go lights".

This is a great topic. I live in Boston, but I went to college in Myrtle Beach. Here are some examples of words they couldn't belive that I said..

Bubbler - Water Fountain
Wiffle - Short hair cut, military style
Carriage - grocery store. They call it a cart and some people call it a BUGGY!
Also, people could not believe that in Boston we have candlepin bowling. Thats definetly a new england thing. Other states have big ball bowling. I brought a video tape down of candlepin bowling and people thought i was from another world. Also,I thought Bubbler was a native new england word. Guess not.

Also in the south if you're in an elevator they'll say, "can you please mash the 3 button for me?"

I just thought of another one. In Boston we call the liquor store, "The Packy"

I am from the south and and have a friend from Australia who went to college with me. One night we went out to eat and she all of the sudden started waving her hands asking for a serviette (sp? pronounced servy-ette). I had no idea what that was. I kept asking her what she was talking about. Turns out she wanted a napkin. To this day we laugh about how confused I was. I wanted to help her but I had no idea what a serviette was.

toddruggy...where does the "packy" come from for liquor store?
-from new york

toddruggy - We use to say something was "nipper" if it was good, "wicked nipper" if it was very good and "wicked nipper pisser" if it was excellent. Any of the three words could be used interchangably - pisser wicked, wicked nipper,etc. No one in college understood me either and I was only in RI.

Jasper - A liquor store is called a package store because all beer, wine or liquor had to be put in a brown paper bag when sold or a "package". Package store is shortened to "packy".

I'm going to the packy to get some wicked pissa beeha now.

Hi. Yeah package store is what "packy" is short for. Also we obviously use the word "wicked" all the time. I looked at my 8th grade yearbook the other day and everyone who signed it wrote either, "Todd have a wicked pissa summer" or have a "wicked Nizza summer".. Nizza was another one.

right, but i don't get the connection b'tween package and liquor...oh well, just curious! i love learning this stuff. here on l.i it's just "liquor" or "wine and spirits"

just read bennie's response...thanks! whatever works! if i think of any more fun phrases...i'll post a.s.a.p

Oh i gotcha now! I don't know why but we also call liquor stores here package stores. I don't really know why we call it that. I just assumed it was called a package store everywhere. So we just condense it to "packy". I'm trying to think of some more. THis is a good topic.

Here's my napkin/serviette story. I was travelling in England and went to a pub with two girls from Australia. I had been told not to call them napkins in England because that meant feminine hygeine products. I was curious about what they called them in Australia, so I picked up my napkin and asked "what do you call this?" One girl looked at me oddly and said "napkin, serviette" and the other girl said "why are Americans always asking that?"

Toddruggy - forgot about nizza. That's a good one. We used to say that too. You must have grown up on the South Shore too. I live on the North Shore now and nobody from the North Shore recalls these expressions. Did you call kids who indulged in illicit activities "burn outs"??

My friends from west Texas call their evening meal "supper" rather than "dinner", too. They are visiting us (SF area) right now, so I?ve been noticing expressions like "put it up" meaning "put it away", and "come out of" instead of "take off" e.g. "I?ve got to come out of this sweater."

One of my favorites, from a friend near Atlanta, "I might could do that."

I love this stuff!

bennie/toddruggy...sounds like we are from the same generation. "burn outs"/"sped ed's"/"scrubs"...just joshin' ya.
: )

This past January I was on the Eurostar from Paris to London and there were these two English businessmen sitting across the aisle from us. I was kind of eavesdropping on their conversation because one of the men had such a colorful way with words, I just couldn't help listening. I almost laughed out loud when he described something as "easy-peasy-lemon-squeezie". He sounded like Austin Powers even though he was this proper looking 50-ish gentleman.

My hubby and I just retured from Dallas and he was just taken w/ the fact that when a waitress or waiter would be addressing the whole table it was Ya'lls (as in "How are ya'lls doing) and when addressing one person it's just ya'll (as in what can I get ya'll). Being in the alcohol business I find different state's liquor laws very interesting. Like the package liquor store where everything has to be bagged. I found the fact that in Texas you need a card (is that right) to purchase alcohol in some counties. Mesquite, where we stayed was dry i guess, and we needed my Aunt and Uncle to "sponsor" us when we went certain places to eat. At least, I think that's how I understood it.

cassidy2002: The plural "y'alls" is a new one. I've lived out of the South for years now and still use "y'all" for singular and plural (and it properly should only be used for plural, but then again, my spoken grammar is pretty appalling).

The rest of your post is a bit confusing to me. Do you mean that the package liquor store bagged each bottol separately, or are you surprised that they bagged the liquor at all? And the "card" that you needed to buy liquor in another place-- do you mean that they required government-issued ID? Now, the relatives having to sponsor you to get a drink doesn't surprise me (it really amuses me, but I'm not too surprised). The concept of dry counties still makes me chuckle. Oh, that Demon Alkeehol!

..."bottol"?!

Uy!

I think *I* need a drink. Ahh, Friday.... Get me a bottLE of something good, someone!!

My father always says "Well that's what makes land high in Arkansas" when he means "oh well". That phrase seems so completely random to me but I like it!

Speaking of geographical differences, rjw, it's clear you're not from the northeast, or you would know it's Oy! (BG)

I always thought the plural of y'all was all y'all.

When we travelled from California to visit family in Tennessee one Christmas, several of my aunt's neighbors came over to meat us. They wanted to hear us say "you guys". As in "Hey you guys, come check this out." They laughed and laughed, thought it was the funniest thing.

That trip every where we went, people kept commenting "Y'all aren't from around here, are ya."

Growing up in Baltimore, I learned when I went off to college that no one understood what I meant when I asked for "wooter." I had to relearn how to say water.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, people would say their car "needs washed" or the ice was "slippy." They would also say "yins" for "you", such as "what are yins doing?" I never got used to that one.

When I lived in New Orleans and ordered a po' boy (otherwise known as a sub), I would be asked if I wanted it "dressed." That threw me for a loop the first time. It means with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato.

Now that I'm living in Texas, I still haven't gotten used to the fact that people here refer to any kind of soda as a Coke. They also say that they're "waiting on" someone or something (meaning waiting for). I thought that's only what a waiter did.

But I sure got used to saying y'all really quickly. My kids, on the other hand, were genuinely surprised to find out that not everyone says y'all.

This thread is a lot of fun to read, and has reminded me of a colorful phrase that I heard when I lived in Myrtle Beach. A friend was describing the physical attributes of a young man, or rather the lack thereof, and she said "That boy has a bad case of the gone ass." Sorry for the indelicate language, but even 20 years later, that phrase still pops into my head!

I am not sure if this term is unique to some parts of chicago but at the afterschool program I work in for kinds in transitional housing (mostly moving up from chicago) a lot of the kids always tell us staff "I gotta use it"
Use what? was the question I asked on my first day and the response I got to that was a kid replying "it" while doing the "i gotta pee" dance.

speaking of peeing
A lot of europeans seem to say taking the piss (i think it refers to making fun of someone)
When I moved to Madison, Wi to go to school there were definetly some things that confused me. With in my first hour I was asked If I knew where the "time machine" was (later found out thie was actually spelled tyme (take your money everywhere) we just said ATM in Florida. Also, there was someone who asked me about the bubbler (water fountain). I think I maked my co-workers laugh for days when I was working in the donation closet and labeled all the snowsuits as "coats with pants" (like floridian's know about winter )

This is a fun thread.

On dinner/supper, my cousins, living in the rural south, used to have their main meal at noon. This was dinner. Everyone came, including the farmers in from the fields. Often there were 3 main courses, a few vegetables, ice tea, lemonade and a few desserts, as well. Supper was fairly late in the evening and light fare or left-overs. In fact, my cousins just scrounged the refrigerator and everyone ate at different times.

In the northwest, when Mt. Rainier is visible, the proper expression is "Mt. Rainier is out."

In Kansas, the Arkansas River is referred to as the ArKANSAS. Everyone I know also puts an "r" in the word wash, as in "warsh the dishes" or "Warshington DC". Even though I grew up here, it drives me crazy!

Staying at a hotel in Cork, Ireland we booked an early morning call. At the appointed time the room phone rang, and I answered it bleary eyed. "Is that yourself?" a lovely lilting colleen voice asked. I said yes. "You'll not be needing a call then" She continued.
Don't you just love Ireland.

No one replied to my DUTCH RUB question.
Anyone else use this term?

After 27 years in the South we still get meals confused. I have breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper. Dinner is the meal around 6pm, with supper being a meal, not snack, around 9pm or later. Here my in-laws have breakfast, dinner and supper. I have to clarify what meal I mean when I say Ya'll come over for dinner!

In the Philippines you don't stand in line you "fall in line". Even the signs in department stores read "fall in line here". Also, being from San Francisco I still get confused when people refer to soda as "pop". I know must of the country does it but I am still not used to it.

I've never heard the "ya'lls" either. Ya'll is the preferred plural form in the South. Maybe "ya'lls" is new to the Dallas area. Also, as another poster already noted, when you want a soft drink in the South, you ask for a coke, not pop or soda. And finally, we say stand "in line" not "on line."

Arkansasnurse: My husband grew up in WI and was often given 'Dutch Rubs' by his gpa. He then passed them along to his children He said he grew up with the term, shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know where it came from".

Being from Michigan, I got a real kick out of some of the sayings when I spent some time in New Orleans. Rather than saying "I'm going to my mom's", they'd say "I'm goin' by mama's house", and going grocery shopping was "makin' groceries".
Also, in Ireland, 5:30, 8:30, etc. is "five half", "eight half", etc.
I love the uniqueness of different parts of the country/world!

While reading all of the messages, I just thought what a wonderful world we live in that we are not just the same. That we can enjoy the differences in our language. I live in Alabama and whenever traveling, people always guess Texas. I suppose people in Alabama do not travel beyond a 50 mile range. I love to hear different accents, New York, Florida and ect... We are a very blessed Nation. In the South we do say carry someone somewhere, to the store, ect. We also say supper for dinner. We say grocery store, (mainly wal-mart). I think we all live in a wonderful place.

That's funny! I'm in New Orleans, and I was just getting ready to post about going "by" someone's house. It used to drive my Dad crazy when I would say I was going by my friend's house. He wanted to know why they wouldn't let me inside. My cajun neighbor would "pass the vaacuum".

What in the world does pass the vacuum mean?

Roxanne, I didnt know "go by" was a Southern thing and I was just getting ready to "make groceries"

I dont know if this is a Utah thing or a family thing, but when my two nephews were here last year from SLC and I ordered Pizza (I dont cook I order) the oldest announced he didnt want the "pizza bones" turns out it was the crust!

Roxanne, where in NOLA are you, I'm 3rd and Prytania. Jon-Eric

My Dad from Iowa had a lot of funny sayings.
If a building was new in town: He would say "wasn't there yesterday".

Someone/thing was ugly: "Uglier than a mud fence".

Dirty or stringy hair: "Looks like rats have been sucking on it".

This is from my Mom;
A bad outfit: " Wouldn't wear that to a dog fight".

What does the rest of the world call running shoes. Here in Boston we call them sneakers and I was told today that was unique to this area.

Anybody know what geefles is/are?? My husband's Midwest family and their neighbors are only ones I ever heard use the word. "Geefles" (hard G) is/are the scum on the top of hot chocolate, or lint found in the pocket, or a politer term for snotbuggers, or...a multipurpose term. No kidding, would like to know if anybody else has heard of geefles.

Growing up in Wisconsin I alternately referred to running shoes as sneakers and tennis shoes, although I've never played tennis in my life!

Here in Chicago they're gym shoes. A white tank top (sleeveless T-shirt) on a guy is a Dago-T. The first time I heard the expression I thought the person was using a French word, like degotee.

Chicagoans also go "by" someone's house, and I too have wondered why they didn't go all the way in if they bothered to get that close! One more -- they don't go to the movies, but to the show. For me a show is strictly something done on a stage.

Mt. Rainier was out today! It was gorgious in Seattle! And everyone thinks it just rains here!

In the South: (particularly Alabama)

*Shopping carts are called "buggies."

*People say "you might could"

*My husband told people he was from LA and they thought he meant lower Alabama.

*Flea markets or swap meets are referred to as "trade day"

Laundry mats are called "washaterias"

Instead of getting in bed, it's getting in THE bed.

Knitted ski caps are called "toboggins"(sp?)

Most sodas are referred to as "coke" until the time of ordering

This is out of the US, but while in Europe, most service people used the word "please" in place of OK, alright or thank you.

Visitors to the New Jersey shore are still referred to as BENNIES by the locals. It's an old acronym that stood for Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, New York - the starting point for many daytrippers, the bane of the locals.

In several parts of New York, those with real New York accents will use the phrase "youse" and plural for more than one person and "not for nothin but" as a qualifier to mean something akin to "I'm not trying to cause trouble but I feel it my responsibility to point out..."

To Blondie: I had forgotten washateria. That brings back memories. And yep, we do call grocery carts buggies. Do you remember beauty parlors? By the way, I'm from lower AL, now in nothwest Florida.

I tihnk "beauty parlors" might be a time-related thing, rather than a geographic thing. We had them in Boston area when I was grwoing up, but now they're all hair salons.

We also had "cleansers" that are now all dry cleaners, except for sometime you'll see "cleansers" on old signs and "cleaners" on new ones, sometimes on the same property.

Sandwiches on a really big roll? Subs now, were spuckies (spukies?) or grinders a couple of decades ago.

Bennie- Here in NYC they are sneakers too. My bf from Ohio calls them "tennis shoes". Which seems really silly to me, unless they actually ARE those low-tread sneakers made especially for playing tennis!

A white tank top is sometimes referred to here as a "wifebeater".

SusanM,

The white sleeveless undershirt is called a "wife-beater" here in Georgia.

This is a fun thread. I've lived in the south my whole life, and from reading this, I think that we have the majority of odd sayings.

I think everyone in the US now calls sleeveless undershirts "wife-beaters". Mostly thanks to shows like "COPS" where the perp in a Domestic Violence bust is always wearing one-- if he's bothered to wear a shirt at all.

The Pittsburghers who posted brought back fond memories of hearing things like "yuns"/"yins" and "dahntahn" (i.e., Downtown) and "chipped ham" and "hoagies", all said in that peculiar hard-edged accent. Good times, I guess....

rjw,

True. Wife-beater/no shirt + no shoes = guaranteed trip to the jailhouse.

My grandmother (MeeMaw) used to say "It's comin' up a bad cloud" if a thunderstorm was looming.

Y'all is plural.

For cassidy2002: When you were in Dallas and needed a "card" here's the reason: There are counties and municipalities that are "dry" i.e. you cannot purchase alcoholic drinks at restaurants unless the restaurant is also classified as a nightclub or bar. So to get around this, the restaurant will also set itself up as a nightclub where the "members" can then enter and buy drinks - that's where the card comes in - it's a membership card to the nightclub. Whether a city or county is "dry" or "wet" (meaning you can order drinks with your meals without all the workarounds) is a matter that the voters have decided. There aren't that many areas in Texas that are still dry anymore. I still remember a stretch of highway that led into my hometown in West Texas that was called the "magic mile" - my hometown was located almost exactly on the county line of a dry county, and the mile of highway leading into it from the neighboring county was lined with liquor stores, so that the citizens of the town didn't have to drive the 20 miles to the next town for their liquor!

A term that I've heard all my life to describe something or someone that's "low class" is "tacky"

I had a client from Virginia who was making a point of how fast someone acted. he said, "That guy was on him like a duck on a June bug!" The rest of us in the room, who were mostly from West of the Rockies, looked at him blankly and said, "A whut on a whut?!"

Reading about the peculiarities of Pittsburghers brought back memories of my mom who was from there. She said she was going to 'red up the house' when she cleaned and she said 'gum bands' for rubber bands and she called a paper bag a 'poke' and she said 'yuns' and greasy was pronounced 'greazy' and homework was 'nightwork'. Fond memories......

Just one from my Iowa grandmother, she would often go out to the garden and pick a "mess" of green beans for dinner or supper. A mess was enough to feed everyone at that meal.

When my kids were little, we took them to New York City (we live in Toronto). A friend who lived there came along with us when we took them to a playground near the hotel, and was amused to hear us talking about the "slide" and the "teeter-totter." Turns out they're called "sliding pond" and "seesaw" on that side of the border. I've since heard "seesaw" a lot in Canada but I don't think anybody here would know what a "sliding pond" was.

On the y'all v. y'alls debate: Did anyone see CSI:Miami last night? The blond detective kept saying y'alls when questioning some suspects. "Did y'alls smoke any marijuana last night?" "I'm gonna need the clothes y'alls were wearing last night.". Was that her own accent coming through or was it part of the script I wonder. Her character is supposed to be from rural Louisiana but the actress is actually from N. Carolina. Any thoughts?

Rubber band?...Ohhhh, you mean an elastic(Boston).

How about in N'Awlins (start there) with "neutral ground" for the center of a 4-lane highway and "Where y'at" which seems to cover everything.

Alexis823: Hmmm, my people are from the heart of Acadiana in Louisiana and I've never heard anyone use "y'alls". Ever. Maybe northern Louisiana...? Who knows? I always thought our extensive use of "y'all" to mean singular and plural "you" connects with the French "vous" which is indeed used for singular (for non-intimates) and plural. Or it's just my bad spoken grammar.

rbnwdln: Priceless! I totally forgot about "red up the house"....

ccolor: Yep, "Where y'at?" just about covers every possible type of greeting.

A whole thread could start on regional accents-- my French dad could do hilarious impressions of my mom's Cajun relatives (which my mom, oddly enough, cannot do), and his imitation of a "mush-mouth" east Texan radio announcer always had me on the floor....

Right now I'm feeling a bit defensive. As a born and breed North Carolinian I use a great deal of these terms as regular speech and I don't see anything wrong with them.

I mash elevator buttons, I get a buggy at the grocery store (sometimes someone will carry me there). And if it's cold outside, I know some people wear toboggins.

Sunday dinner is at 1:00 after church. Supper is the evening meal.

Y'all (NEVER ya'll) is a contraction of you and all. It represents the second person plural of a word and is a good word. It helps prevent confusion between you (second person singular) and you (second person plural). Though I have never heard of Y'alls, I have heard 'all y'all' (all of you all).

ncgrrl - I too was starting to feel a little odd earlier in this thread when all of the "strange" Boston/NE phrases were being pointed out - especially the ones that I took for granted as being ordinary speech! I mean doesn't everyone say "monkeying around" Oh well.

Anyway I think all the regional differences are wonderful and hate to see them change. But language has always been very adaptable. That's why Webster's keeps revising the dictionary!

Y'all is a contraction of 'you all' so using it in the singular would be bad grammar.

Bennie,

Glad to know I wasn't the only one. And I've heard about monkeying around, though sometimes it has a more 'adult' definition.

And I thought 'you can't there from here' was a southern term. I think it was even on the Andy Griffith show.

Just today, I received an e-mail from my sister in Alabama, she was referring to her son being upset she wrote, "he had a come apart."
She was raised in Alabama and I was raised in Massachusetts. We often find each other's dialect and manner of speech amusing.

ccolor: I reread your post and laughed about the "neutral ground"-- that's something I'd hear from my cousins in White Castle and Houma (out on d' bayou dere, you know, cher?). Stuff I just don't hear any more *sigh*....

OK - I've waited long enough. Last Saturday I had a garage sale. An older man made a purchase and I asked him if he wanted a bag for his purchases. He looked at me, pointed to a purse and said "THAT is a bag, in Texas we say "sack". That was a new one for this Northern transplant. Also, the locals call grocery carts "buggies". I still can't bring myself to say that!

Not being from NC.,but now living here, I find myself at a loss once in awhile. I felt insulted when I was called a mess, only to find out it is a compliment. A man at a market told me he put my fruit into a tote. Huh? They push their buggies in the grocery store (I can't bring myself to say that either) Mee-Maw and Paw-Paw had me confused but what really made me laugh out loud was "Is that at ya'llse's house?" They also refer to underpants as britches.

My grandfather was from here and he said "I swannee" when something surprised him but I imagine that is an old saying.

But I got here from Idaho by way of Wisconsin and New York. They all have their cute sayings.

I've lived in Florida all my life, my dad's from Kentucky and mom's from Pittsburg, so I kinda get a mix. But I do say "y'all" and I often hear "I reckon" and "fixin' to" and whatnot. And many of my relatives call underwear "britches."

One odd thing I've heard is someone from the Pittsburg area saying "warsh" instead of "wash". It was very strange to me and I wonder what other words it applies to!

And for the record, the plural of "y'all" is "all y'all".

LilyMaria, my Dad is from the Pittsburg area and he also says "warsh" and Julia, all of his relatives refer to garbage as rubbish.

This is a fun thread. Just imagine how boring the world would be if we all referred to a drinking fountain as a drinking fountain.

Last fall there was a new police show that was suppose to take place in Detroit. In the first episode anyone from Detroit could tell that the dialect was not researched prior to taping. They referred to a soft drink as soda, we call it pop or soda pop. They indicated that one of the characters had gone down the street for a "slice." I believe that is how you purchase pizza in New York but in Detroit we just buy a pizza and rarely do we walk down the street to get it. We get into our cars and drive to the store. They must have gotten a few calls or letters because in subsequent episodes the dialect was changed.

Folks, this is an 8 year old thread. Let it die.

somebody --help me here. I honestly want to know: How in hell does a first time poster find this 8 yo thread to top?? Now sometimes I'll grant you, a google search will bring up a really OLD thread. But that is when there is something actually 'searchable'. Like a hotel name, or something like that. LilyMaria- if you ever come back to this thread . . .PLEASE tell us how you found this old/moldy thing?? Inquiring minds want to know . . .

While on vacation in North Carolina I was walking into the grocery store and a man said: ....how are you in three letters....I R U ?