# Different things that have the same name (where you live) and nobody gets confused **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739 "2021-01-17T16:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/161 "2021-01-22T22:30:43Z")
I think coke has multiple meanings, but Co-Cola has only one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/162 "2021-01-23T01:31:02Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Around here #1 and #3 are carriages, but #2 is a shopping cart. And a less fancy #3 would probably be called a buggy; while #1 is commonly specified as ‘baby carriage’. > … Funny enough, in other parts of the USA, #2 is called a buggy or a “shopping buggy”. Not my personal usage, but I’ve sure heard it enough. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/163 "2021-01-23T01:32:59Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > > [@Aspidistra](#): > > > > I saw “belligerent” as another meaning. > > You hear this use a lot during sports broadcasts, NFL in particular. Often, it’s when one team has a large lead over the other with little hope for the losing side. The hits get a little harder, the post-play words get a little stronger, tempers get a little shorter. It doesn’t rise to penalties or fighting. “It’s getting chippy out there.” > [@bob\_2](#): > > Over here “chippy”, when used to describe someone - “He’s a bit chippy.” - means over-sensitive, as in someone with a chip on their shoulder. Those seem to be nearly the same idea. The losing team is trying to use marginally legit violence to make up for not succeeding on the scoreboard. They’re acting hard to get along with. Looking for an argument or fight despite inadequate provocation. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/164 "2021-01-23T16:03:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Funny enough, in other parts of the USA, #2 is called a buggy or a “shopping buggy”. Which parts? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/165 "2021-01-23T16:14:31Z")
Some Googling suggests that “buggy” is typical of the traditional US South AKA former Confederacy, but not FL. I wasn’t able to find a nice neat map to link to. You may have more luck. I do hear some of the NY//NJ accents around here (SoFL) using the term “buggy” also. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/166 "2021-01-23T16:21:15Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I do hear some of the NY//NJ accents around here (SoFL) using the term “buggy” also. NYer here, I’ve always used and heard it called “shopping cart,” _never_ “buggy.” [![](https://i.imgur.com/qgDP5ZM.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/qgDP5ZM.png) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/167 "2021-01-24T04:40:56Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > A “trunk” can be a storage compartment in an automobile or a large piece of luggage. And yet it’s rarely confusing when someone says “That item is in the trunk”. The elephant put the trunk in the trunk with his trunk. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/168 "2021-01-25T10:01:35Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > The elephant put the trunk in the trunk with his trunk. ‘In the High and Far off Times, the Elephant had no **trunk**. He had just a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a **boot,** that he could wriggle about from side to side; but couldn’t pick up things with it.’ [Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling (boop.org)](http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/elephant.htm) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/169 "2021-01-26T13:50:59Z")
In the UK a buggy can be a small offroad vehicle or what Muricans call a stroller. Shopping carts are trolleys and carriages can be many things, mostly descended from the horse-drawn variety. The Queen has a rather nice gold one and railway engines pull them in trains. What is sometimes described as a divided highway, we call a dual carriageway. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/170 "2021-01-26T14:14:20Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > In the UK a buggy can be a small offroad vehicle or what Muricans call a stroller. As an American, I can’t think of any time I’ve heard the word “stroller” used to reference anything other than a baby stroller (i.e. something you put your baby in and push around). Which I guess counts as a “small offroad vehicle,” but I wouldn’t describe it that way. “Buggy” makes me think of either a baby buggy (like a baby stroller, but more old-fashioned) or a dune buggy. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/171 "2021-01-26T18:10:01Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Shopping carts are trolleys To me, a trolley is a kind of streetcar; mostly extinct. Very like a city bus in function, but runs on tracks via electric power fed to it through an overhead setup. When I googled it, however, the first row of pictures was all of what I’d call handcarts; though the second row was what I think of as trolleys. – we seem to have shifted at least partially to the same thing having different names. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/172 "2021-01-27T00:16:51Z")
> Where I live this is a [carriage](https://images.app.goo.gl/dk15tFyHU3f2jfFWA). And _this_ is a [carriage](https://images.app.goo.gl/fjZa5vPQ7NA7e2cs8). And **this** this is a [carriage](https://images.app.goo.gl/XpxtGDNJeJbuEr616). All without any modifier 90% of the time. > > I cannot recall even once being confused as to which someone meant, let alone guessing incorrectly. And when I first heard the word carriage used for a shopping cart, given the local dialect, I thought they were saying carrot and spent a good minute or two trying to figure out how a carrot was going to help someone carry groceries. I’ve heard it referred to in the US as a shopping cart, shopping basket, carriage, trolley, buggy, and cage. Locally I’ve seen spa both for a place where you get a massage or facial and as an older convenience store or bodega. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739.md?page=8)