Colloquialisms

My grandpa always said, "Hoddy"...for howdy. If you ever listened to Bob Barker on the Price is Right, he said that too! My family also said worsh for wash. I never gave it a thought until my DH told me there isn't any R in wash...lol!! Sometimes I still slip and say that. Many is the time I told my kids to go 'worsh' their hands!

Edited to say....we also said cattywampus for crooked.

This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 7:17 PM

in St. Louis, where i am from, people do the warsh - sometimes in the zink. It might even take farty minutes. When visiting my grandma, one sat on the davenport in her living room. And St. Louisans are known for asking people, upon meeting them, "Where did you go to high school?"
i confused the NE forum yesterday when someone said they liked long johns, and i said "The ones you wear, or the ones you eat?" I didn't even know that was a regional thing. I'll wait and see if other people on this forum have eaten long johns.
When i 1st came to CT, i was shopping in a store, carrying quite a few items, and an employee came up and said, "Ma'am, can I get you a carriage?" I was startled to say the least - i have no children. To me a carriage is something you push a baby around in, or a vehicle that you ride in that is pulled by horses. Apparently here, it is a shopping cart.
And why, in NH, when i ordered a "frappe", which i was told is pronounced "frap," what i got was a milkshake?

amy
*


This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 7:18 PM

I get wishy-washy sometimes.

Well, ever since I married DH back in 1984, I have spent a great deal of our married life living in the "boonies" which is short for "boondocks. I always thought 'cattywampus" meant diagonally across from as in"The Joneses live cattywampus across the street from us". and "I don't cotton to" means "I don't like that".

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing (FOOMCL), Kwanjin, when I read about the guy in th next cell.

Yeah, cactus, how DO you say ice?

Cattywampus, kittycorner, kattycorner...We also have cock-eyed, which, to an uncle of mine is the whole planet. Sorry, now I'm blathering!

Me, too, Marcy, re: "warsh your hands".
Welcome, Amy! our Wal-Mart Super Center sells long-johns in the same section along with the other freshly-made baked goodies. They also sell them over in the men's clothing section! LOL
I, too, call them shopping carts, not carriages. I don't have a clue as to why they give you a milkshake when you order a frappe.
Kwanjin, I'm not too wishy-washy but DH sometimes drives me crazy whenever we go "out to dinner" because he can never make up his mind what he wants to eat. Finally he'll say, "I'll just have what you're having." Now that's wishy-washy!

cock-eyed means crazy and I agree with your uncle-- the whole planet is!
Blathering--is that the same thing as "blithering" as in "blithering idiot"?

Shopping carts=carriages=trolleys.

What's a long-john. The kind you eat. I've never heard of that one.

This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 5:35 PM

Yup. One and the same.

The edible type of long-john is a rectangular-shaped, chocolate-covered donut with filling inside.--yummy!

thanks marsue re: long johns! I had no idea that that wasn't universal. What on earth do people in other places call bar shaped, non-twisted donuts?

Another one to mention: before visiting Australia last year, i was told to not refer to the carry-all many tourists have as a "fanny pack," because "fanny" was slang for another part of a woman's anatomy, which one would hopefully not be packing travelling supplies in...

o, but to me long johns aren't filled, or neccessarily chocolate frosted - that's an eclair

FOOMCL, Amy, re: fanny packs!
Okay, maybe chocolate frosted, filled, bar-shaped delicacies are eclairs, but long-johns are similar, at least in my book.

Filled bars are what they're called here. I'm going to start calling them Long-johns and watch the reactions.

too funny, kwanjin! and take your camera along so you can preserve the expression to share with us!

Ooooh...they call them Bismarks here.

Camera in my bag/purse/pocketbook/shoulderbag...

This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 5:49 PM

not in your fanny pack?

"Fanny! My bee-yooo-tifull Fanny!!!"

♫take a load of fanny - take a load for free...♫

ROTFLOL!!!!!!!

Aww yes, and I'm told that what we call "ice cream" out West is "frozen custard" in parts of the East. I don't know if "milk shake" is a universal expression for the same thing or not.

Boondock, Boonies, Sticks and more currently Boondock Eqypt but I'd be careful with that one, its REALLY closely related to ANOTHER saying that is very popular with the youth that you likely would NOT want to hear!!

All these slang terms and local expressions are what make learning a foriegn language so hard! If you listen carefully someday, gauge how much is "proper English", and how much is slang and local terms! I mean "Holy Cow!", YIKES, and those are not the swear words in use!!

i have never understood that song.
(sorry psych, X posted)

This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 7:57 PM

Amethystam ... did you mean "of" or "off"???? Hehehehe

well, it sounds like of.

I always thought the expression, "take a load off " mean to take a load off your feet, ie, sit down! Did I misunderstand???

Oh, I've noticed. Slurred speech is common, as is miss-pronunciation.

I have a brother BIL who insists on saying things incorrectly and on purpose. Lieberry. Intendo. (Nintendo) My personal favorite is ..."The dinosaurs went instinct."

A friend of my mothers went to a choir-practor for her back and my daughter is terrified of tri-antulas! Oh, and she takes timenol for headaches.

Yes, my husband says his com-puker and other words intentially mutilated consistently.

take a load off yer dogs.

Com-puker! I love it!

A few years ago, my twin sister and I were travelling through Georgia, and we stopped at a little restaurant in a small town. Very homey place., well I ordered a deluxe cheesburger, cause here that is saying you want everything on it, ie, tomato lettuce, onion pickle, well the little waitress, in the twangiest voice I have ever heard said, I am sorry, we only serve one size. Well, I started laughing, and when I was able to stop, told her what I meant, and she says in that drawl, well why didn't you say run it through the garden?

Another expression here is "fix supper" meaning to cook supper. Somebody called me on it, by asking who broke it? Another is make the eggs and bacon, no the chickens make the eggs, and the pigs make the bacon, we just cook it.

OHhhh Bonnie...I always say fix supper!

I say that too. And "run to the store," I'm not going to run, I'm going to drive!

o - i forgot!
My DH & i went to Prince Edward Island in August, and everywhere there (& maybe somewhere in Maine too), you could get a "fish burger" a "chicken burger," etc. Now, i have had tuna burgers many times, and i've seen salmon burgers, but this was odd - i had to try it!

Apparently, burger just means it's on a bun. So, to me that would be a "fried fish sandwich."

everytime, when I say I am gonna run somewhere, DH says take the car, you might get tired!!

I have a friend who says zinc for sink, and I wondered where that came from. She also says dealf, meaning deaf.

My, oh, my, what am I gonna do with y'all. I leave you alone for 30 miunutes and you've "dun gone
plumb crazy"! I nivver heerd sich nonsense in all my borned days! I'm gonna havta take ivver last one of you'uns down to the wood shed and teech y'all some manners. Fer cryin' out loud!

Looks like "when the cat's away the mice will play"!

Anyone wanna go "to dinner" or should I plan on "fixin supper" myself?


and around here it's a "com-pooter"!

Since I've recently moved to the South, from NY & CA, there have been a LOT of regional words I've had to learn - in addition to learning to understand the accents here. Suddenly, tho, while reading this, I can't remember them all! LOL "Fixin'" was one that drove me nuts for a while.

The one currently tripping me up is "barbeque" used as a noun, instead of an adjective. The restaurants advertise "We have Barbeque".... barbeque what?? Chicken, Beef, Pork, Sauce... what?

My friends from NYC used to say "CUT the lights on or off", instead of "turn the lights on or off". Interestingly, my nieces & nephews from Kuwait also say that....

My Grandmother & her family from north, central PA used to say "yoose" instead of just "you".

Hush Puppies - I'm not a hush puppy fan, but there's a barbeque restaurant we go to here that serves Sweet Potato hush puppies, with a butter/cinnamon/sugar sauce. They're super!!!

Sourdough - I've recently learned that sourdough bread tastes different depending on where the sourdough starter comes from. I miss San Fran sourdough tremendously, and nothing on the East coast has ever come close. I found a site that sells starter from wherever in the world you want it from; you just have to keep it going after you get it. And to answer someone's question up there, yes, you have to add the starter to flour & stuff to make the bread.

Once when my MIL came to visit, she asked " ha kum ya bought a shRed maCHine, snekars jus' a'geod!" It took me several minutes to decipher that one!! She still teases me about the "shRed maChine!"

Sweet potato hushpuppies with cinnamon sauce? Sounds deliciously different!

This message was edited Oct 21, 2007 8:22 PM

Just look what you started marsue! What fun. I had an aunt who said "warsh your hands", she from here so don't know how she got that? Kwanjin, I say ice correctly, never could figure out what they heard. But I recall ordering iced tea and they brought me Asti Spumante! When I would order tea up there they thought I wanted a hot cup of tea. I just started ordering water. No one has ever had any trouble understanding me here at home.

I recall my Grandma saying something like "land 'o goshin" when she was surprised. I don't know if I am spelling it right? Or what she was saying. The other Grandma would say "Land sakes" anyone have any idea what they meant? An aunt would say "what the Sam Hill is going on here?" I always thought they all just made up things!

Heck no, I heard all them! Land 'o gosh, land sakes AND what the Sam Hill is goin' on. I don't know the origin of any of them.