# Do What Now? And Other Regional Phrases **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 5, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781 "2010-01-05T19:34:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/41 "2010-01-05T23:37:00Z")
I’m “fixin’” to get me somethin to eat, so… y’all don’t “run off”! Q;) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/42 "2010-01-05T23:44:11Z")
If you’re from the South and you want to criticize someone, it is _incumbent_ upon you (especially if you’re Baptist) to preface what you are about to say with one of the following: 1. You know, I just love her/him to death, but… 2. God love her/him, but… That way, you haven’t offended the “Big Guy” (I guess…:rolleyes:) And, of course, the aforementioned, “Bless his/her _heart_…” Don’t seem like a German boy oughta know all that stuff, does it?😉 Q ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/43 "2010-01-05T23:46:44Z")
Central PA: “Redd up the room” for “Clean up the room”. ---
**Author:** ![davey77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@davey77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davey77)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/44 "2010-01-06T00:13:14Z")
> [@slightly\_askew](#): > > I grew up near Pittsburgh, so I know about gum bands. Anyone out there know what it means to be nebby AKA a neb nose? Also, the roads get slippy in the winter. I’ve had to work to use the verb “to be.” Didn’t know it was wrong until I got to college ;). I also know how to red off a table. Lots of Pittsburgh regionalisms. > > Now that I live in Ohio, it drives me nuts when people use itch instead of scratch, as in, “itch my back.” > > I do like the regionalisms that our relative in northern Minnesota use such as “spendy” and “oh for cute!” I did not grow up particularly near Pittsburgh (about 2 1/2 hours drive away in Ohio), but man, those Pittsburghisms popped up in my and my neighbors’ speech all the time. At home, we would “redd” the table after dinner before some “nibb-nose” showed up and ate all our “chip-chop ham.” At school, a classmate showed up and told us another teacher was ready for us to come over to watch the movie. Except he said, “She’s ready for yinz.” My teacher invited the boy to rephrase that, so he responded, "She’s ready for yinz _guys._ Many years later, I learned this phrase could be made possessive when a waitress informed us she would be “right back with yinz guyses’ meals.” Meals in this case rhymed with mills. BTW, I also hate “itch” instead of “scratch.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/45 "2010-01-06T00:42:14Z")
In the Pacific NW, people begin a sentence with the word “anymore,” as in “Anymore, I …” when I would use the word “Nowadays, I …”. No matter how many times I hear it, it sounds odd. When I hear someone say “right quick”, I have to stop myself from doing something really bad. Luckily, I hardly ever hear it, not living in the South. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/46 "2010-01-06T00:44:10Z")
Chicago/Midwest: Washroom = bathroom. In other places, nobody know what you mean when you ask where the washroom is. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/47 "2010-01-06T00:46:04Z")
When I moved from Ohio to NYC, it took forever to learn to say “soda” rather than “pop.” And to learn the difference between “merry,” “marry” and “Mary.” 25 years later, in 1995, I moved back to Ohio, and had to unlearn everything. And one day I used the phrase “I don’t give a rat’s ass” and got some very strange looks. Since then, it’s become commonplace everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/48 "2010-01-06T01:18:46Z")
> [@Mannish](#): > > Speaking of Southern Cali, the phrase “No worries!” as a substitute for “Don’t worry”/“No problem” still sounds…surfer-ish to me, and I’ve lived out here for 4 years now. I transplanted from Michigan… Surferish? Sounds more [Aussie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_worries) to me… ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/49 "2010-01-06T01:29:56Z")
Please? That’s what people in the Cincinnati area say when they didn’t catch what you said. Short for “please repeat that” or something. Bugs the crap outta me. “Keep the house picked up” always bugs me too. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/50 "2010-01-06T02:07:11Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > I first heard ‘hella’ on a Real World Miami episode - the girl was describing the house to her mom on the phone and said, ‘it’s hella big!’ I think she was from PA though . . . That was Sarah, who was originally from PA, but lived in California, and was a skateboarder. Hella was surfer/skateboarder slang before it ever went mainstream. > [@maladroit](#): > > I used to have a group of friends from pennsylvania and they said “you’ns”, only people I ever knew to use that. Not you’ns, yinz. It’s, as has been noted, a SW PA, largely Pittsburgh metro area, thing. > [@slightly\_askew](#): > > Anyone out there know what it means to be nebby AKA a neb nose? Sure, nebnoses are always butting into your business. A truly persistent nebnose turns into a nebshit. > [@](#): > > I also know how to red off a table. Lots of Pittsburgh regionalisms. Redd _off_. Never heard that one. Redd up, sure. In fact, our last mayor of Pittsburgh’s citywide “let’s make our town look better” initiative, still in effect as a memorial to him, is called “[Redd Up Pittsburgh](http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/redduppgh/index.html).” But I’ve never heard it with an “off.” > [@Quasimodem](#): > > I’m “fixin’” to get me somethin to eat, so… y’all don’t “run off”! I went to college in SW Missouri, but the student body came from all over the place. The Oklahoman and Texan girls in my dorm got everyone out of the habit of referring to our pre-menstrual moodiness as PMS. Instead, we were FTS, or “fixin’ to start.” Our Minnesota/North Dakota friends hipped us to the power of the bubbler, as well as the beautiful phrase _come with_, as in “We’re going to get lunch, want to come with?” or “Is it just you two? I thought Melissa was going to come with.” And courtesy the Utahns, I’ve been saying “oh my heck!” for 20 years. Washroom in place of bathroom was prevalent on campus too – with the Canadians, though, not the midwesterners. ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/51 "2010-01-06T02:15:50Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Ha _ha_! I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but it is hilarious. I laughed out loud. It’s the addition of the little purple confused face at the end that made it so funny to me. It’s the perfect illustration of the emotion I felt reading that. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/52 "2010-01-06T02:23:24Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > In the Pacific NW, people begin a sentence with the word “anymore,” as in “Anymore, I …” when I would use the word “Nowadays, I …”. No matter how many times I hear it, it sounds odd. I haven’t noticed that. I’ll have to pay more attention. Before I moved to Seattle I didn’t know what a “sunbreak” was. I also learned the phrase “the mountain is out” which I heard myself say the other day. Actually, not the other day, more like two months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/53 "2010-01-06T03:01:57Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > Please? > > That’s what people in the Cincinnati area say when they didn’t catch what you said. Short for “please repeat that” or something. Bugs the crap outta me. > > “Keep the house picked up” always bugs me too. They also call turn signals “directionals,” if I recall correctly. A South Carolinan friend of mine has me saying, “having his picture made” and “making a party for him,” just because I like the way those phrases sound. ---
**Author:** ![QuercusMax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/8baadc/32.png) [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/54 "2010-01-06T03:30:54Z")
> [@Surly\_Chick](#): > > It’s a rubberband. But I only figured that out when she started making stretchy hand motions! One other thing about gumband: the final ‘d’ is not pronounced. So it’s more like “gum-ban”. (I live in Cleveland and work with a few Pittsburghers, who do their best to conceal themselves except during football season.) ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/55 "2010-01-06T04:30:52Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > That was Sarah, who was originally from PA, but lived in California, and was a skateboarder. Hella was surfer/skateboarder slang before it ever went mainstream. Actually, it was Cynthia - who I thought was from Pennsylvania, but after looking it up it appears she was from California. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/56 "2010-01-06T06:10:49Z")
Anybody else know somebody who only says “Do What?” Also, I’ve heard that measuring distances almost exclusively in hours and minutes is a largely Texas/Oklahoma phenomenon. Am I full of shit? > [@Obsidian](#): > > My husband and his sister (from Texas) say “put up” instead of “put away” (“Put up your toys, Timmy.”) > > They also say “I’m going to do X here in a minute.” Whatever you’re doing is “here” in whatever time. . . even if it’s not actually “here”. Like: “I’m going to go to Costco here in a minute.” or “I’m leaving for work here in an hour.” Oh god. I do both of of those (although I tend to use the “Here in a little bit I’m gonna X” construction) and I didn’t even realize they were regionalisms until you just now said it. > [@needscoffee](#): > > When I hear someone say “right quick”, I have to stop myself from doing something really bad. Luckily, I hardly ever hear it, not living in the South. Oh, you’d haaaaate me. > [@tumbleddown](#): > > The Oklahoman and Texan girls in my dorm got everyone out of the habit of referring to our pre-menstrual moodiness as PMS. Instead, we were FTS, or “fixin’ to start.” Never heard this one, although I think I have heard someone fully say out “fixin’ to start my period”. I guess I don’t associate with demure women? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/57 "2010-01-06T06:36:35Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Chicago/Midwest: Washroom = bathroom. In other places, nobody know what you mean when you ask where the washroom is. That’s Canadian, too. We generally use it the way Americans use “restroom” (i.e. for a public bathroom or as a euphemism). When my brother went to London and stayed in residence, on his first day he asked where the washroom was. After some confusion, he was shown to the laundry room. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/58 "2010-01-06T06:44:39Z")
… you shouldn’t take literally, ah reckon. 1. As a little boy fresh off the plane from Germany in the early 60’s, as I turned to leave my aunt Opal once said, “Yew come on’ back now, Billy!” Okay, so I turned around and went back. Stood there, and she finally raised up her right hand closed the fingers on it twice rapidly and said (in a fake German-American accent): “Ven I say dat, it meantz bei-bei” Vell, denn **zay** dat… …bidge! 1. As folks “is a-leavin’” they’ll say… “Y’all just come owwn and go _with_ us!” Yeah, right. Like you really mean that. You’d _shit_ if we were to put on our coats and head on out the door right behind yo’ ass and get in the back seat. 😉 Quasi ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/59 "2010-01-06T06:51:42Z")
I never realized that _You bet_ meaning _you’re welcome_ was a regional thing until I moved south. One of my first bosses (a fellow Hoosier) used it while speaking on the phone with me one day and it dawned that I hadn’t heard the phrase used with that meaning since living in Indiana. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781/60 "2010-01-06T15:37:35Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > If you use the construction “That car needs washed,” instead of “needs to be washed” or “needs washing,” I know you live within a 4-hour drive of me. Where? Pennsylvania? I’m from central PA and grew up with that idiom. Of course, one mustn’t forget the ‘R’ in the middle of the word 🙂 (I learned better later in life but have a distinct recollection of raising my hand in first grade and telling Sister Reptile that she forgot the R when she wrote it on the board). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-what-now-and-other-regional-phrases/523781.md?page=4)