Is there an expression specific to your region?

Eh?

Would you be so kind as to identify the region, too. Thanks.

Some people are considered 0–8ers ( pronounced Oh-eight.) It refers to the zip code of an area in town where you could replace, “you might be a redneck if…..” with “you might be an 0–8er if….” in any Jeff Foxworthy joke.
Oildale California, Just outside of Bakersfield.

I’m Canadian.

there’s a Southern accent where I come from; the young’uns call it country, the Yankees call it dumb…

I don’t think so, but I could be wrong.

Hella is a Northern California slang term. People used to say it a lot, maybe they still do and I just don’t notice it.
Beezy used the correct way. (See entry #14) Bay Area slang.
Hyphy is another Bay term.

Not sure if we’re the only ones here in the East, but we say things are ‘wicked’ cool, or ‘wicked’ gross, etc. It could even be more of a Boston thing. I’m sure someone will let me know if I’m wrong!

Ghost-ride the whip is a Bay Area/Oakland thing.

I’ve heard ‘Scraper’ in reference to a ‘beater’ car frequently in Oakland. I’m not sure if it’s unique to that region.

“Y’all” is plural of “you”, not singular and instead of plugging something in to the electric outlet, we “plug it up”. In New England, “Youze” is plural for “you”.

@psyla You have never had a Southerner tell you, individually, “Y’all come back, now, hear?”

The plural is “All y’all”.

“Youze guys” is more New York, I thought.

I remember ‘You guys’ (non-gender specific plural of you) from Colorado, but it may be a western or mid-western thing.

Yes, for sure, but the saying that chaps my hide is “You’re not from around here, are you”. This seems to be a semi- polite way of saying “I don’t like you so could you please move out of my State?”.

@psyla That’s the Southern translation of the Minnesotan “Most people wouldn’t do it that way.” :o)

BTW double lurve for being the set-up for my singular/plural joke

poofandmook, “youze” is very common in MA, CT, and RI.

Most people wouldn’t do it that way” is much kinder. The further West you go, the more tolerant people are. My hide is no longer chapped out here in the West.

I’m in the south, but really, in my area, there isn’t a specific saying. Somehow, people not from this area think we say things like, “Ya’ll come back now, here?” Or other sayings like that, all the time. Not always true. and dare I say I’ve heard “Ya’ll” in various regions, not just in the south?!?

North Carolina

“All of All Y’all” must be plural for a large crowd.

I call my fingers fangers. I enjoy chicken fangers. Im from Tennessee yall! Oh and my neighbor he gets mad at his dog and beats him with a newspaper while saying “I’ll learn you by gawd!”

My sister says “fangmily” instead of “family. Her favorite cereal is Count Chocula.

@psyla “You ain’t from ‘round hear, are ya boy?” Is one of my favorite Southern affectations. Sorry to hear it offends, I just think it’s funny.

What does the saying mean? I never understood what they were implying by saying such a thing. Is it an insult?

@Grisson – it doesn’t necessarily offend me, I just have to laugh when I meet someone, not from this region and they tick off a list of things they think we say. It just cracks me up!

@psyla It’s definitively does NOT mean ‘Go away’. It means you do things that are different. I usually say it when someone does or says something silly, and it’s intended as jest, not an insult.
[edit] And I say it to southerners as well as non-southerners.

Have you heard “Hell Fire” instead of “Holy Shit”? Another strange one is “Saints Preserve Us”.

Thanks, Grisson, I always wondered about that!

@cak Yes, many of the things we say in this region, we say because people from other regions think we say them. :o)
Just trying to oblige.

I think it’s funny when I’m down south and people say “well bless your heart” I only like it when you know they want to tell you f off but can’t. No one says that here in NY. People around here say pop instead of soda.
@Allie hella is used here too, but thankfully it has diminished in the last few years.

@psyla ‘Around here’ I’ve heard ‘Shoot Fire’ in that context.

@elijahsuicide <truly laughing out loud> What you might not realize is that “Well bless his heart” might not mean what you think. For instance “That Bush sure got the economy in a mess, <pregnant pause>, Bless his heart.”

I used to live in MA where people paak their caa, and eat pizzer. Now I live in Texas where high=expensive and one can carry people places.

@Grisson haha I know, I was editing my response as you were typing that!

In the Army, they say “Cat Dammit” or “Gat Dammit” instead of “God Dammit”.

Yes, in New England, we drink Kahfee in the Kah. We eat Peetzah instead of pizzer though.

I’m from Milwaukee, the only place in the world where a drinking fountain is called a bubbler.

@elijahsuicide – yes, the “bless his heart” thing is fun to say and you are correct, usually, it’s not meant the way it sounds! ;)

Ugh I thought of one that annoys the crap out of me, when people say they are standing on line. No your not, you are standing in line!!!

@elijahsuicide – I still say ‘in line’. Born-and-bred New Yorkers need a second when I ask, “Hi, are you in line?”

I’m from Texas. ‘Nuff said.

Up here in the New England region we’re a big fan of the words “wicked” as an adjective denoting a certain level as in “wicked good” “wicked bad” “wicked sweet” etc etc. The NH/VT region say “shit-ton” as in “there’s a shit-ton of work to do today” and most of the new england region seems to be a big fan of the word “clusterfuck”.

I say shit-ton too.

My SIL is from New Orleans. She calls herself a “Yat.” This comes from a typical NOLA greeting, “Where yat?” which is used in place of “How are you doing?” She has a bunch of other things she says that are common to NOLA and that don’t always mean what you think.

For example, there is no sidewalk in front of her house; there is a banquett (from the French for small bank along the road).

She likes her sandwiches dressed (all the way with lettuce and tomato and such).

She goes to the store to make (buy) groceries, and sometimes gets a lagniappe (a free item).

Some of the fancy streets near her house don’t have a median strip; they have neutral ground.

She also says mie-nez instead of mayonnaise and puts it on her red beans and rice (but only if it’s Blue Plate Mie-nez).

She passes the vacuum and kisses her little cher when she gets a beaux-beaux.

She frequently says “It don’ maddah” (It don’t matter), and “YEA, you right!” (yes, you’re right).

And she likes to pass a good time on the gallery with mama n’em (have a good time on the porch with her family).

I grew up (and live) in Pittsburgh, where there are FAR too many to count. A few of my favorites:

redd up = clean up or tidy (as in “I have to redd up the house before my mom comes over”)
yinz = you (equivalent to Y’all in the South)
yinz guys = plural of you (equivalent to All Y’all)
slippy = slippery
gumband = rubber band
n’at = standard end to every sentence (as in “Yinz guys goin’ dahntahn to see the Stillers n’at?”)

There’s actually a whole website devoted to Pittsburghese – no one believes it until they’ve been here for themselves, but we really do talk like that! =)

@Darwin – Some of that is just Southern, which my some of my family (descended from Alabamans) also speaks, e.g. make groceries, mama ‘n’ em, YEA, you right! I also grew up hearing “finsta.” As in, “I’m finsta go to the sto’.” I guess it was “fixin’ to” before it got slurred down.

Ya, youbetcha der iss.

diginout-an expression most often used on the phone.
“Ya, sorry dere, we’re not gonna make it. We gotta lotter snow last night, so we’re diginout.”

No Worries Mate! But my very favorite aussie one is “The garbo and the milko met in the arvo at the servo for a smoko!”

@adreamofautumn Clusterfuck is used here, too. My friends and I say it all the time.

Another NOLA-ism is “red gravy” for spaghetti sauce.

In New Mexico, the provincal thing to do is to “get down” from your truck. I assume this is a carryover from horse riding days.

@kevbo: red gravy is Italian… at least, I’ve known people from New Orleans and I’ve never heard that term from them. Only from Italians.

@rooeytoo Translation? :o)

@Allie Is that a militarism?

@Allie where is here?

@psyla – My Mom used to say ‘Saints Preserve Us’ a lot!

And I’m guessing ‘That smells like butt’ is used by teens everywhere.

@adreamofautumn I’m from Northern California.

@Grisson Yes! Haha… and a SNAFU and a FUBAR, too.

@autumn43 Meaning cigarettes, right?

@Allie Ah… but what is a ‘fiasco’? :o)

@Grisson But that seems so… normal.

@Grisson – no, I’m pretty sure it means the daloon type butt.

@Grisson – garbo=garbage man, milko=milkman, arvo=afternoon, servo=gas station, smoko=break for a smoke or a snack!

They say we all speak english, but sometimes I wonder!

I tend to hear scrub a lot around here. No clue why. And that’s Boise, so midwest-ish.

“Green or red?” is frequently asked at restaurants in New Mexico when referring to which kind of chile you want on your meal

In New Jersey, we wait “on line” to go “down the shore” (to the ocean) unless the “bennies” (out-of-towners) got there first.

@janbb: I completely forgot “down the shore”! How stupid of me!

@autumn43: Yup, up here in Boston everythin’ is wicked fuckin’ pissa so long as the Sox ain’t gettin’ creamed, the Pats are winning and the Celts are playing in the Gahden. Pahkin’ however sucks big time so’s the T is the way to go to get to Fenway. So grab a dog and a brew and chill the fuck out. Unless you’re a retahd.

There are lots in Michigan. I had to look some of these up, but I find myself using most of these expressions as well:

“Pop” = “Soda”
Have a “good one”. = “Have a good day.”
“How’zit goin’?” = “what’s up?” or “how are you?”
“Ink Pen” = “Pen” (I don’t say this, but I hear it from a lot from blacks for some reason.)
“Lookit!” = “Look at that.” (This one is more common among children. I’d want to punch an adult in the face for saying this.)
“Michigan Left” = A right turn onto a boulevard followed by an immediate u-turn at the next available crossover. This keeps traffic from backing up at intersections with boulevards.
“Party Store” = “Liquor Store”
“You guys” = “You” [plural] or “You all” (This is also used to refer to a group of women.)

In America, we “turn on the computer”, but in Asia, we “open the computer”. Yeah, I hate it when I’m waiting in line and some people come along and wait on line. It gets gnarly.

@Vinifera7 My understanding is that “ink pen” comes from Kentucky (and possibly other parts of the south) where the accent makes the words “pin” and “pen” sound pretty much the same. Saying “ink pen” distinguishes it from a “straight pin” – but I have no idea why that would have migrated to Michigan!

@kruger_d – Hey, dere. Ya know, a long time ago, I went ta see that Fargo movie, dere, at a theayter in New York. And right when the movie began, everyone sterted laffin an’ laffin; I didn’t know what was so funny so erly ahn, ya know?

Turns owt they were laffin at da accent, dere. It was funny to ‘em. Cuz tho I have relatives from the South, I spoke full M’waukee until I moved to da East Coast. Now it’s only sorta M’waukee.

It took me a loooooong time to lose my Michigan when I moved back to New Jersey in 5th grade. Even to this day when I say things, sometimes they’ll come out Michigan. Like “dawn” will come out sounding the same as “don”, whereas in Jersey it’s a long “aw” and an exaggerated “d”.

I argued with my teacher in grade school that it should be spelled necked. It didn’t make sense with an “a.” I lived in Oregon but my family moved there from New Mexico. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.

@Judi – actually you were both wrong. It is spelled “nekkid” as in “He was nekkid as a jay bird.”

@Darwin ; is that like Knee-kid?

@Judi – No, it is like NECK-id. That is why it has two k’s.

@Darwin ; sounds good to me. I would have bought that a lot quicker than that silly “a.”

I’d never heard FOBish until I got to Southern California. It’s a racial epithet for (Asian) immigrants who are “fresh off the boat.”

In Nevada, we don’t end a phone call by saying “Goodbye” or “Bye”. We say “Hummmmm Bye”. We put alot of thought into it first before saying “Bye”. It sounds really idiotic on the phone, “Hummmmm… Bye!”, but it is really fun deciding how long to stretch out your “Hummmmm”. Try it some time in your Region. People will think you’re nuts!

@sdeutsch
Good insight. However the first time I heard “ink pen” it sounded more like “ee pin”, so I still had to ask what the heck the girl was saying three times before she decided to enunciate.

Me too, had no clue what the hell they were talking about a pin for, it made no sense at all. Dang if we should call everything by the same word & use a different adjective for each so we all know what the hell we’re talking about.

Another example of this is the expression “a clean shirt”. I don’t know why they have to add the fact that it’s clean, hopefully if they’re wearing or going to wear it, it’s clean. This expression must be descended from the 1800’s before they did laundry.

@psyla – No, the expression was developed by parents of teenager boys, as in “No, I said a clean shirt!”

Amazing how those old Seventeenth Century sayings find a use in modern life, isn’t it? My favorite, when I’m trying to hold back a swear word is “Criminy!”, but I have been heard saying “Tarnation!” as well.

@psyla so what is the origin of “criminy?”

@Vinifera7 and @psyla – Yeah, the problem is that in Kentucky, “pin” and “pen” both sound like a weird combo of the two (kind of a whiny diphthong thing – almost like “pi-en”), so you really can’t tell which one the person is talking about.

The other problem (which you pointed out, Vinfera) is that with the heavy accent, you really can’t understand the “ink” or “straight” part either, so adding the modifier doesn’t even help… ;)

@sdeutsch
“pi-en” is right on. It sounds exactly like that.

Yeah, marry someone from Kentucky, and you learn these things quickly… =)

Only people who grew up in San Antonio, Texas call a convenience store an “icehouse”. This is an old, historic San Antonio word that dates back a century when SA was a major ice producing location (pre-fridges with icemakers) and the ice factories would also sell things like chips and candy at the pickup location. Slowly that morphed into convenience stores that also sell beer. Today, a real “ice house” is an open-air beer bar and small store. But, life-long SA natives will say “I am going down to the icehouse” when they mean the gas station/convenience store (Stop n Go, 7–11, whatever)

@crisedwards – Aha! So that’s why it is called Waterloo Icehouse.

@Darwin And the “Waterloo” part is because Austin was called Waterloo, Texas before being renamed in honor of a Texas legend.

I’m not from the South, but I heard that Southerners, when they have something not so complementary to say about someone, say it, and then end with “bless his heart!” or something to that effect, to sort of “make it OK”. Cracks me up, and now I say it simply because I think it’s funny.

“My dog peed on the carpet, bless her heart, and now I’ve got to clean it up.

@snowberry I think it is a sign of quiet exasperation rather than an insult.