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Old 11-09-2009, 05:44 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,714,097 times
Reputation: 29967

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
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 View Post
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?"
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:06 PM
 
Location: New Hampshire
2,257 posts, read 8,134,242 times
Reputation: 4108
Quote:
Originally Posted by MassVt View Post
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

Pocket book = purse

Elastic = rubber band
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:14 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,714,097 times
Reputation: 29967
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.


Last edited by Drover; 11-09-2009 at 06:30 PM..
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:15 PM
 
Location: Dayton, OH/Portland, OR
398 posts, read 1,312,707 times
Reputation: 210
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
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.
There are "Supper Clubs" here in Dayton, OH too!
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:17 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,714,097 times
Reputation: 29967
Quote:
Originally Posted by malachai23 View Post
There are "Supper Clubs" here in Dayton, OH too!
Complete with attached tavern and Friday fish fry?
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:25 PM
 
Location: Dayton, OH/Portland, OR
398 posts, read 1,312,707 times
Reputation: 210
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
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!
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:39 PM
 
8,276 posts, read 11,837,014 times
Reputation: 10075
Quote:
Originally Posted by Verseau View Post
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.
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Old 11-09-2009, 06:47 PM
 
8,276 posts, read 11,837,014 times
Reputation: 10075
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
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.
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Old 11-11-2009, 02:40 AM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,714,097 times
Reputation: 29967
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover View Post
Normal places: "The floor is slippery."
Pittsburgh: "The floor is slippy."
LOL, here's a guy in an automotive thread verifying this one for me.
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Old 11-11-2009, 06:00 PM
j33
 
4,626 posts, read 14,039,217 times
Reputation: 1719
Quote:
Originally Posted by MassVt View Post
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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