Regional Phrases, funny expressions and Idioms

[Beezle2]

I use the phrase "Got a hitch in my git along" when my knee is acting up. Have heard " hitch in my giddy up " used the same way.

 

[tasha99]

My dad is an octogenarian+ Iowa farm boy and when it's raining bad he describes it as raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. I thought all my life that was his own strange idiom until I had a patient in Idaho tell me the same thing. I asked her about it, and she said it was a common phrase.

Also, I love how in NYC, no one stands in line. They stand on line.

 

[mjkacmom]

My dad is an octogenarian+ Iowa farm boy and when it's raining bad he describes it as raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. I thought all my life that was his own strange idiom until I had a patient in Idaho tell me the same thing. I asked her about it, and she said it was a common phrase.

Also, I love how in NYC, no one stands in line. They stand on line.

Ugh, that was a hard one to break after internet was invented, I used to always say on line (you get on the back of the line).

 

[Lumpy1106]

Nothing I’ve ever read gave a logical reason for “The 405” being called the San Diego Freeway.

The only explanation that made a small bit of sense was for travelers from Northern California going to southern Orange County or San Diego. It was supposed to be a quicker way to bypass downtown Los Angeles. But as it turned out, it’s often more congested than just staying on I-5.

What's even dumber is the freeway that DOES go to San Diego, the 5, is the Santa Ana Freeway. Yeah, you pass through Santa Ana - but if you are going to use that naming convention, the 405 should be the Irvine or Huntington Beach freeway - something like that.

Or just stick with the numbers like the locals do.

 

[EricLaurie]

From my wonderful grandma in MN I remember two more.

“He couldn’t fight his way out of a paper sack” to describe someone who was hopeless.

Or - my favorite response from her - when I would ask her how she was she always smiled and said she was “finer than frogs hair”.

 

[phillyteamhater]

I live in what's considered the coal region of PA, or the Susquehanna Valley.

Egg over easy is a dippy egg
Slippery is slippy
Pavement is payment
Come with me is buddy me
You all is youse
Creek is crick
Underwear called gotchies
Punkin instead of pumpkin

There is a whole coal region dictionary but these are just a few I have definitely used

 

[Lumpy1106]

I grew up in the gold country in No Cal. See if you know what these are;
Monitor
Pelton Wheel
Gandy Dancer
Tommy Knocker
Chinaman's Chance

Just a few if the unique things I learned about growing up.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I live in what's considered the coal region of PA, or the Susquehanna Valley.

Egg over easy is a dippy egg
Slippery is slippy
Pavement is payment
Come with me is buddy me
You all is youse
Creek is crick
Underwear called gotchies
Punkin instead of pumpkin

There is a whole coal region dictionary but these are just a few I have definitely used

Grew up on Long Island. Live in Philly now and we always called them dippy eggs from when I was a kid and still do. My husband grew up on Long Island and same...dippy eggs. My parents are from the Bronx and Brooklyn so Long Island has some strange phrases though so who knws.

 

[kanne323]

As for other regional phrases:

Michigan: kitty corner instead of catty corner.

Cincinnati: please instead of excuse me, or can you repeat that. I found that really odd when I moved here.

Family phrases: instead of using the phrase, "is the pope Catholic!" my family (dad's side is polish) and when John Paul II was alive it was, "is the pope Polish!"

We say kitty corner in New England. I had never heard catty corner until I moved to NJ, and quite honestly, the first time I heard it,I thought the person saying it was mistaken (and not very bright!)

In Massachusetts we use wicked in place of very. It's been wicked cold this week.
We use rotary instead of roundabout or traffic circle. The East Longmeadow rotary is the worst.

YES! I learned to drive in that area. Yikes.

I think the Garden State Parkway, the NJ Turnpike, and “the expressway” (Atlantic City Expressway) officially have NJ Route numbers, but absolutely nobody uses them.

I just looked it up. The GSP is Route 444, NJT is Route 700, and the ACX is Route 446. Those numbers appear nowhere on signs, they just officially exist on paper in some highway commission office.

I lived in NJ for 20 years and never knew this! Always just the Parkway or Turnpike (or some random string of curse words in front of either one.)

I grew up with highways that were just referenced by number- 84, 91, 95, except for the Massachusetts Turnpike- that's the Mass Pike or just the Pike.

 

[fly girl]

We say kitty corner in New England. I had never heard catty corner until I moved to NJ, and quite honestly, the first time I heard it,I thought the person saying it was mistaken (and not very bright!)

LOL, that's hilarious!

I thought Michiganders were the only ones. Good to know we have allies in New England, and vice versa.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I'm very confused by it. I don't hear it often, and I've never personally heard it used as an alternative to "shut up" meaning "stop talking". The only way that I've heard it used myself is as a response to someone imparting a bit of news that is very surprising, like a really juicy piece of gossip.

In my old neighborhood when someone tells you a surprising and juicy piece of gossip, you usually respond with "Get outta town!"

 

[snowwite]

I live in what's considered the coal region of PA, or the Susquehanna Valley.

Egg over easy is a dippy egg
Slippery is slippy
Pavement is payment
Come with me is buddy me
You all is youse
Creek is crick
Underwear called gotchies
Punkin instead of pumpkin

There is a whole coal region dictionary but these are just a few I have definitely used

My mom always called it a dippy egg.
i have heard all of these except gotchies!

 

[snowwite]

I grew up in the gold country in No Cal. See if you know what these are;
Monitor
Pelton Wheel
Gandy Dancer
Tommy Knocker
Chinaman's Chance

Just a few if the unique things I learned about growing up.

Well those are definitely foreign to me! Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Lumpy1106]

Well those are definitely foreign to me! Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[Lumpy1106]

Fixed it to include the answers;
Monitor

Spoiler

water canon for hydraulic mining and powering mechanical equipment using a pelton wheel

Pelton Wheel

Spoiler

cup shaped water wheel used for running mining equipment when you blast it with a monitor

Gandy Dancer

Spoiler

Prostitute

Tommy Knocker

Spoiler

A troll that lives in the mines - always good luck to have one around

Chinaman's Chance

Spoiler

This was depicted in "Golden Dreams", the show that used to be where Little Mermaid is now in DCA. Chinese slaves were lowered down in baskets to set explosives for the railroad on cliff sides. They survived if their fellow slaves could hoist them up in time. Otherwise...

Just a few if the unique things I learned about growing up.

 

[Dznypal]

Try going into a store or business and ask where the bubbler is
Which here is wi most areas call it a drinking fountain.

 

[snowwite]

Try going into a store or business and ask where the bubbler is
Which here is wi most areas call it a drinking fountain.

It’s a bubbler here too.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My mom always called it a dippy egg.

We did too.

It’s a bubbler here too.

That took some getting used to when I moved here.

 

[snowwite]

We did too.


That took some getting used to when I moved here.

I would never drink out of one. Back in the day in nursing school I took a microbiology course. We cultured many different things like our caps, stethescope, IV pole, bubbler and public toilet seat. The bubbler had more ecoli than the toilet seat!

 

[frog3101]

Deleated...wrong thread.