Sayings from "Up Nawth"
 

Simply John, I liked your thread about Southern idioms, but we can't be the only ones with colorful expressions. Let's hear from other parts. My dear Dad's Mother, who was from Maryland, called unopened Christmas presents that are hidden away "Yankee Doodle Tumblers" and their yankee doodle tumbler closet was a small closet under the stairs. My Dad has used that expression as long as I can remember, and I do, too. A Yankee Dime was a kiss/ hug.

In CT, a "hero/hoagie/submarine" sandwich is called a "grinder". I think it's pretty specific to southwestern CT and maybe NYC also. I was in FL and asked for a sausage grinder and the guy behind the counter immediately said "You're from New Haven!" and I said "Close, Bridgeport" (15 miles away) so I think it's pretty geographic specific, maybe it has spread since...

I had a roommate who always said Gadzooks.? Was from Malverne? NY.

Rhode Islanders have their own expressions you might not find anywhere else in New England. For example:
quahog = clams
cabinet = milkshake
milkshake = frappe
gravy = red sauce on spaghetti/pasta
coffeemilk = coffee flavored milk
clam cakes = a RI favorite in the summer (like fishcakes only with clams)
frozen lemonade = another summer favorite (but delicious!)

Something is not just good, it's wicked good.

And from the Tom Silva school of building everything's 'Buuutiful'

And don't forget the "bubbla" (bubbler=water cooler)

GBelle, I've had frozen lemonade in Oklahoma and Texas and it is DELICIOUS! They sell alot of it at baseball games. Cabinet for milkshake is similar to what I heard in St. Louis for a frozen custard milkshake--a concrete!

in the upper mid-west its "uff da". there are so many norweigians here. in norweigian it means "oh no". the area is also famous for pot-luck dinners.

Jimmies=sprinkles on ice cream
Tonic=any kind of soft drink
pissa=great

GBelle, i love the "gravy = red sauce on spaghetti/pasta". doesn't exist here in the upper mid west but surprised it doesn't.

also, nobody ever got "pregnant" until the mid seventies. it was a naughty word!

jor...Archie Bunker always said only single women got pregnant,married women were expecting.

Agree with the gravy/re sauce thing, but it's hardly limited to Rhode Island or even New England.

Italian-Americans in New York and Philadelphia say "gravy."

Also, "quahoag" is not a substitute for "clam." They're two different things.

"Bubbla" was funny. I was in a teleconference one day, and a woman from Boston (on the other end of the line) said, "A bunch of us were talking about that around the bubbla." Everyone in the room had this look like, "WHAT did she say?"

This is probably the strangest one. When I was in grade school in NH, the kids used to call the lavatory the "basement." Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Wicked good is something I always heard, too.

In northeastern Pennsylvania they never say "turn out the light" it's always "Outen the light".

In Maryland people eat french fries with gravy (and it's good). They also call jitterbugging hand-dancing.

Growing up in central Indiana, and still living here, we never had "potluck" dinners. They were always "pitch-ins."

Another oddity from my youth (60's & 70's) was my grandfather and other Hoosiers his age calling green bell peppers "mangoes." I have no idea how that started and I've not heard it much in the last 15 years. I'm curious if anyplace else used to do that.

I don't hear much about "progressive dinners" anymore. You'd have an appetizer at one house, drive to the next for salad, etc. Tighter drunk driving laws have probably stopped that and rightfully so.

Indytravel--I've heard green peppers called mangoes by friends of our who are native Hoosiers, but not very often.

When we lived in Atlanta, we used to have progressive dinners once a month, but it was in our subdivision and we all walked to each other's houses.

You aint had nuthin till yous had a ramp dinner.

I grew up in New England with school lavatory = basement, too. In the older, Victorian-era school buildings, the plumbing really was, literally, in the basement since when indoor plumbing was introduced, all the above-grade space was already spoken for. The only water upstairs was the bubblers.

All my Italian relatives say "gravy" for red sauce, regardless of where they live. Quahogs are a specific type of clam, you'll hear that term on the Cape, too.

I'm afraid my grandfather helped keep the mango misnomer alive for a few extra years. He and my grandmother used to run a greenhouse in the Acton area, the southeast corner of Marion county.

You know dln, since you live practically up the street we should meet for lunch sometime. I'd love to see your Italy pictures.

I'm supposed to be packing for France since I leave tomorrow, but I have all morning too.

Maybe we could meet in January and I'll bring my pictures from France. E-mail me if you like, it's a real address.

I am a transplant from NY.
On cape cod and in Mass...they say"IDEAR!!!!!!" what is with the "r" at the end. ????
Chowda!!! lobsta, cahhhhhh...
It sounds so tacky!!!! It took me forever to understand these people!
(uh oh here they come!;lol)

Here in SW Pennsylvania, you'll hear:

*youins (pronounced yunz), used such as, "Are "youins" going?", as opposed to are "you" or "you all". I guess it's this area's payback for y'all--this was a more acceptable term years ago, but not as politically correct these days just because of the way it sounds
*Pop used for soda
*Yepper (obvious) used for an affirmative answer
*Picksburgh for Pittsburgh, I guess some just can't pronounce the "T" ;)

Happy Thanksgiving

BBelle, your list is the same as Boston, here!!!!

In the Adirondacks, we have "cricks"; two kinds:

1- a stream "caught a trout from the crick yesterday"

2- a pain, usually back or neck: "I got this crick in my neck"

and of course I remember being laughed at by the first "city girl" (nyc) when I was young who ridiculed me for saying what I saw at the "the - eight - ter"

sunnydelite, good question. i have never been able to understand the r at the end of words either. how does law end up lawr?

and, water warter??
and, lieutenant leftenant?
and, the weirdest thing I have ever heard PhiladelTHEA!! (heard that in Montreal)

hugglynn, I've heard youins from my Dad all my life! (He's the one with the mother from Maryland--maybe that's like SW Pennsylvania)
And indytravel, our neighborhood garden club still has a progressive dinner every year, and a friend of mine lives in a culdesac that has one every Christmas. Maybe walking is the good idea!

In New Hampshire, I saw a sign at a combination gas station/diner that read
"Eat here and get gas"
I always loved that one.
Priscilla

It always bothered me to hear my MIL say "it's time to put him down" when it was time for my son to take a nap. She loved her wood cookstove so if she needed a hot fire she would use "biscuit wood". A ramshackle building "leans toward Sawyers" and has holes "big enough to throw a cat thru".I grew up with bubblers, tonic, and frappes. When I lived in the city we lived in a three decker.

Funny - Milwaukee area folk seem to think the "bubbler" is unique to their area. Guess we won't tell 'em....

My SIL from north central Pennsylvania says "catty-wampus" for kitty-corner...

And hey - no more chiding for that Boston and environs accent that takes the "r" off lots of words and tacks it on others...I LOVE the regional differences and accents in America...Hope they never fade.

so true arjay! this is what makes the our country a melting pot!!:)
lol Jor.....I will never understand the "R" thing!!!!!

Priscilla, i don't think i can beat that one. but when we went to the lakes area in minnesota we saw a sign on a gas station which said "restaurant/live bait".

i also agree with above posts that regional quarks and individualism makes us great.

Upper-Midwest/Minnesota specialties:
Casseroles are "Hot Dishes", as in tuna noodle hot dish, hamburger-onion hot dish, etc. Brownies and other baked desserts cut in squares are "bars". Agreement is signaled by "sure, you betcha". Asking someone to accompany you somewhere is "Do you want to come with?" By the way, I've heard flight attendants refer to the W.C. on the plane as the "bubbler"

Here in New Hampshire :
Going to the mall - going upstreet
A untrustworthy person is 'So crooked he can't lay down in bed'
Pour hot maple syrup on snow and roll it up to get 'sugar on snow'
People from Massachussets are from 'downstate' or are 'flatlanders'.
If a non local has a child in New Hampshire is it considered a local? 'Just because a cat has kittens in the oven, that don't make 'em muffins!'

being from New Jersey, home of Tony and Carmella..hows about:
1)fugetaboutit
2)whacked
3)badda bing
4)sleeps with the fishes
5)holymarymotherofgod

Being native from Michigan, my Grandmother always said something was "... slower then molasses in January.". And does anyone know what a wooly bear is ( small black and orange caterpillar seen in the fall)?

Dear Jersey--I've heard the "molasses in January" My aunt also used to say "slower than an herd of turtles". Isn't the wooly caterpillar the one that develops extra wooliness when it's going to be a cold winter? How are they doing this year? (my yankee doodle tumbler room is really a mess--I need to start wrapping some of them and mailing them out! how's everyone else doing with Christmas planning?)

My Mom, the Pennsylvanian, used to use the word "yins" to refer to a group of people. Eventually, the Texans got to her, and she now uses "y'all" properly.

In the Allentown,PA area they not only say "outen the lights", but they "red up the house" (clean up the house).

Mzpossum,

The woolies are very wooly this year. Right now the wind is howling and its colder then sin (another Grandma saying). My relatives in Michigan are already seeing snow.

Best Holiday Wishes

As a displaced New Yorker living in the South, I grew up with many of the above sayings. I must add, Dutch Rub, a loving hand scrub with a fist. Also monkey....don't go and monkey around with that. In the South I hate hearing 'ie' added to words...borrowie, thingie makes me nuts.