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Normal places: "I'm going to clean the house."
Pittsburgh: "I'm going to redd up the house."
Normal places: "The floor is slippery."
Pittsburgh: "The floor is slippy."
Normal places: "Mind your own business."
Pittsburgh: "Quit being nebby."
Normal places: "I'm going to the store to buy bread and other items."
Pittsburgh: "I'm going to the store to buy bread 'n'at."
Normal places: "Would you two mind giving me a hand?"
Pittsburgh: "Would yinz mind giving me a hand?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by malachai23
I know someone from a small town south of Pittsburgh and she definitely has some colorful regional slang. The one that always gets me is "It's all!" and she uses it for everything. Like if you have a bowl of strawberries, eat the last one, and the bowl becomes empty, she would say "It's all!". I wish I could think of some of the others... they remind of the "nebby" word - like words I've never heard before in my life!
I forgot one:
Noormal places: "Can I borrow a rubber band?"
Pittsburgh: "Can I borrow a gum band?"
Its reputation exceeds its usage; I seldom hear it around here, in metro Boston/Cambridge. And when it is used, it's almost a "parody" of what tourists EXPECT to hear from Mass residents..
Out of curiosity, what age group do you usually hang around with? Because I find that "wicked" is much more common among young people. However, this is generally only true if that person was born and raised in New England; and Boston has a lot of outsiders.
As for myself, I use "wicked" shamelessly and nearly all of my fellow New Englander friends use it as well. It may have entered into fashion in other parts of the country at one point, but today it is very much a shibboleth of New Englanders, IMO.
Anyway, since this thread has been done a hundred times before, I'll copy and paste a list of New England slang terms that I wrote down before (note that many of these vary even within the region and/or are on their way out):
Bubbler (mostly RI and eastern MA) = Water fountain (it's strange that we share this word with parts of Wisconsin)
Directional = turn signal
Rotary = traffic circle / roundabout
Cellar = basement
Parlor (mostly RI and eastern MA) = living room
Bulkhead = the door in the ground that leads "down cellah"
Wicked = very, extremely
Supper = dinner (traditionally, "dinner" in N.E. is often used to refer to meals not eaten at home, or a late afternoon meal, particularly on Sundays)
Rubbish = trash / garbage
Clicker = remote control
Grinder = a sub sandwich
Tonic (old-fashioned) = soda
Frappe = milkshake
Cabinet (RI) = milkshake
Notch = a mountain pass
Jimmies = (chocolate) sprinkles
Packie (Boston) = liquor store ("package store")
Candlepin = type of bowling with small pins and small balls
Dungarees (old-fashioned) = jeans
Jersey (old-fashioned) = T-shirt
Fluffernutter = a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich
Hoodsie = a small cup of ice cream with a wooden spoon, sold by Hood
Schrod = popular fish meal, usually a young cod, sometimes haddock
Pisser (Boston) = cool, awesome
Flatlander = someone from the coast, usually used pejoratively by people in northern New England to refer to people from southern New England and elsewhere
Leaf peepers = people who invade N.E. in the fall to see the foliage
Wisconsin/Minnesota: "Supper Club" -- a family-style restaurant that serves late afternoon/evening meals only. Other requirements to be a true supper club: must do fish fry specials on Fridays; must have a full-service tavern attached, typically in a separate room. Open to the general public despite the name.
Wisconsin/Minnesota: "Supper Club" -- a family-style restaurant that serves evening meals only. Other requirements to be a true supper club: must do fish fry specials on Fridays; must have a full-service tavern attached, typically in a separate room. Open to the general public despite its name.
Complete with attached tavern and Friday fish fry?
Truthfully, I've never been to one - so I really don't know! I have seen quite a few around and "Supper Club" is part of their name. When I first moved here I thought they were private clubs like the Elks Lodge or something! Now I know better - but I have yet to go into one. I do know that the "fish fry" is HUGE here though... maybe someone else from this area will chime in and teach me a thing or two!
Out of curiosity, what age group do you usually hang around with? Because I find that "wicked" is much more common among young people. However, this is generally only true if that person was born and raised in New England; and Boston has a lot of outsiders.
As for myself, I use "wicked" shamelessly and nearly all of my fellow New Englander friends use it as well. It may have entered into fashion in other parts of the country at one point, but today it is very much a shibboleth of New Englanders, IMO.
Anyway, since this thread has been done a hundred times before, I'll copy and paste a list of New England slang terms that I wrote down before (note that many of these vary even within the region and/or are on their way out):
Bubbler (mostly RI and eastern MA) = Water fountain (it's strange that we share this word with parts of Wisconsin)
Directional = turn signal
Rotary = traffic circle / roundabout
Cellar = basement
Parlor (mostly RI and eastern MA) = living room
Bulkhead = the door in the ground that leads "down cellah"
Wicked = very, extremely
Supper = dinner (traditionally, "dinner" in N.E. is often used to refer to meals not eaten at home, or a late afternoon meal, particularly on Sundays)
Rubbish = trash / garbage
Clicker = remote control
Grinder = a sub sandwich
Tonic (old-fashioned) = soda
Frappe = milkshake
Cabinet (RI) = milkshake
Notch = a mountain pass
Jimmies = (chocolate) sprinkles
Packie (Boston) = liquor store ("package store")
Candlepin = type of bowling with small pins and small balls
Dungarees (old-fashioned) = jeans
Jersey (old-fashioned) = T-shirt
Fluffernutter = a peanut butter and Fluff sandwich
Hoodsie = a small cup of ice cream with a wooden spoon, sold by Hood
Schrod = popular fish meal, usually a young cod, sometimes haddock
Pisser (Boston) = cool, awesome
Flatlander = someone from the coast, usually used pejoratively by people in northern New England to refer to people from southern New England and elsewhere
Leaf peepers = people who invade N.E. in the fall to see the foliage
Pocket book = purse
Elastic = rubber band
I'm middle-aged, and I grew up in Burlington, VT, which doesn't have the "Bostonian" accent, and also doesn't use quite a few of these expressions that you've listed.
For example, in Burlington, we didn't use : bubbler, packie, tonic, directional, jimmies, candlepin, pisser, wicked, bulkhead, cellar, among others. Some of these words, like "packie" and "tonic", are extremely parochial, and often refer to Boston alone, or even just a section of Boston. To me, a milkshake is a milkshake, and a tonic is an alcoholic beverage, not a soda, and I've never called a rubber band an "elastic".
Burlington, VT, is more like Madison, WI, than Boston, and choice of expressions follows a national pattern, more than a sub-regional one.
Wisconsin/Minnesota: "Supper Club" -- a family-style restaurant that serves late afternoon/evening meals only. Other requirements to be a true supper club: must do fish fry specials on Fridays; must have a full-service tavern attached, typically in a separate room. Open to the general public despite the name.
I remember some of these "supper clubs" when I lived in Madison, and the Friday night fish fry specials which happened all over the state, including Milwaukee.
On a different note, I'm willing to bet that Wisconsin ranks quite high on a ranking of states based on residents who are natives of that state. I met very few people in non-professional occupations, (i.e. not a physician, lawyer, etc.), that were not natives of Wisconsin.
Its reputation exceeds its usage; I seldom hear it around here, in metro Boston/Cambridge. And when it is used, it's almost a "parody" of what tourists EXPECT to hear from Mass residents..
I have family in that area, and they use 'wicked' all the time, as well as many other terms unique to New England (e.g. 'directional' etc).
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