# Regional expressions you didn't always realize were not widespread **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 11, 2021, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263 "2021-01-11T15:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/261 "2021-02-17T02:25:40Z")
In my locality in the Pac NW, we’d called doing the skids ‘burning cookies’ ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/262 "2021-02-17T12:41:59Z")
It gave me Columbus (correct), Fort Wayne, and Des Moines. Des Moines was based on “other” for the Halloween question; I think Ohio, Iowa, and the Buffalo metro area are the places where “beggars’ night” is/was a term for the night before Halloween. In central Ohio, it’s now used for any day on which trick-or-treating is scheduled by the local authorities, but the traditional night was the 30th. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/263 "2021-02-17T13:07:25Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The only reason I even knew this was that “Devil’s Night” in Detroit is somewhat infamous for vandalism and looting, which sometimes gets covered in the national news. I remember when I was a kid, so 70s into the early 80s I think, every year it was a question of “how many abandoned house arsons will there be in Detroit this Devil’s Night?” The city eventually stepped up enforcement with an army of volunteers acting as a big neighborhood watch and things quieted down a lot, maybe by the mid-80s? Maybe not completely till the late 80s, early 90s, not entirely sure. If anyone remembers the Brandon Lee movie “The Crow”, it took place in an unrecognizable Detroit where, instead of the Devil’s Night fires being caused by disorganized groups of aimless, bored inner-city teens, the fires were caused by a crime syndicate who were setting the fires in order to cause a distraction from their REAL crimes, or something. Not sure how they managed to do crime the other 364 nights of the year. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/264 "2021-02-17T13:31:25Z")
The individual results were jumping all around the place, but the final result got close enough with Springfield, Missouri. Though it also thought I could be from Ouachita, Kansas, or Lincoln, Nebraska, rather than anything in Arkansas. Still, people have told me before I sounded more like I came from Southern Missouri. The word that caught me out was “crawdad.” The other two are because I answered “pop,” when I use both that term and “soda.” I went with “pop” because that’s the one I learned first, from my elders, so I assumed it would be the one they’d know. I also reset after the first one, because I couldn’t decide between “y’all” and “you guys.” I also picked a whole lot of the ones with extra explanations, none of which seemed to ever have much coverage. Like, for example, “rubbernecking” does not refer to the accident. And a freeway is bigger than a highway. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/265 "2021-02-17T14:28:04Z")
One of the guesses I got was Buffalo, which is pretty close to Toronto all things considered. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/266 "2021-02-17T16:51:53Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I got Yonkers, New York and Newark/Paterson - which is correct, since I have lived in NYC my whole life. What I don’t understand is how my most distinctive answer for all three cities is “sneakers” - I would have thought that 'hero" would have distinguished NYC from Yonkers. People who are born in Yonkers would also pronounce “sneakers” as “_sneakiz_”. That and other accental cues are the reason I find that the Yonkers accent is the ugliest of all the NYC/NYC area accents. It’s curious how it fades quickly going even a few miles north to Hastings. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/267 "2021-02-17T17:36:46Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > It’s curious how it fades quickly going even a few miles north to Hastings. Might as well call Yonkuz duh Bronx Nort. If English continued to degrade from that point as you moved upstate it would no longer have sufficient variation between syllables to form distinct words. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/268 "2021-02-17T22:28:34Z")
As rowdy younguns, in the heavy winter snow, we would hide behind a parked car and when a car went by we would grab the back bumper and see how long we could skitch (spelling?) on the car. Maybe a portmanteau of skiing and hitching? Then, we got older and could drive ourselves, damn we did some stupid stuff. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/269 "2021-02-17T22:49:44Z")
Heh. I grew up attending a “church”\* on Jackson Avenue, right at that Hastings-Yonkers border. (\*Scare quotes because, you know, Unitarians!) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/270 "2021-02-18T02:45:46Z")
> [@motu](#): > > As rowdy younguns, in the heavy winter snow, we would hide behind a parked car and when a car went by we would grab the back bumper and see how long we could skitch (spelling?) on the car. I never tried it on a stranger’s car but I skitched with friends in the 90s. One problem today is that cars don’t have much to grab onto. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/271 "2021-02-18T04:35:42Z")
Realize I’m a little late to the party re: “on line” vs. “in line”, but it does seem to be exclusive to the New York City metropolitan area. Whenever I hear someone using “on line” that way, I’ll say, “You’re from New York City, aren’t you?” In the eight or nine times I’ve asked, I’ve only been wrong once. And that guy was from Philadelphia. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/272 "2021-02-18T05:02:49Z")
That gave me Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, and Jackson, Mississippi. Which is odd, because I grew up in northern Ohio. But my dad is Southern, and I’ve lived in Georgia for 35 years, so I guess I must have shed pretty much all of my Cleveland accent. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/273 "2021-02-18T22:17:56Z")
I got Minneapolis/St. Paul (bingo!), Omaha, and Wichita. A few of my answers didn’t even change the country from dark blue. That would be the influence of my British ex. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/274 "2021-02-19T00:10:48Z")
How are you people seeing that quiz? All I get (across several browsers) is a heading and the “About this quiz” section at the bottom. The rest is blank. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/275 "2021-02-19T00:15:17Z")
That happened to me initially. I think my pop-up blocker was doing something. I switched to opening it in a Chrome incognito tab and it worked. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/276 "2021-02-19T00:17:05Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > How are you people seeing that quiz? All I get (across several browsers) is a heading and the “About this quiz” section at the bottom. The rest is blank. The quiz is boxed and probably is an image rather than text. Your browser settings or something may be blocking images? Also, at times when I don’t have a good internet connection (like now with the Texas weather) pictures/images take a long time to load. Maybe be patient? Anyone else have an idea? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/277 "2021-02-19T00:20:32Z")
Going incognito solved it. Thanks, **TriPolar**! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/278 "2021-02-19T00:21:01Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Aurora, Chicago, and Tucson for me. Well, the middle one is correct, and the first one is an exurb or suburb of Chicago. Weird. I re-took it, and got a sprinkling of some different questions (maybe 4 or 5 different ones) and it put me in the DC area: Arlington, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, based mostly on the “yard sale” question and the “highway” question. Here in Chicago, we call it a “yard sale” or possibly a “sidewalk” sale if it’s in the front yard, and a “garage sale” if it’s in the, well, garage, which is typically behind the house, facing the alley (which I know many cities don’t have, or at least not in the same way.) And I went with “highway” for the big road with fast traffic, although it could be “expressway” as well. I tend to use “highway” as a generic for all those types of roads (county/state highways, interstates, toll roads, etc.) I guess if I answered “pop” for the soft drink question, it probably would have put me back in Chicago, but I do call it “soda” 80% of the time (I grew up in one of the “soda” neighborhoods of Chicago.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/279 "2021-02-19T00:28:04Z")
Nailed me right down to almost the zip code. Southern California all the way, although they did throw Fresno into the mix, of all places. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263/280 "2021-02-19T01:12:25Z")
Took it three times for grins&giggles (tried to be as consistent as possible). Results: - Madison / Salt Lake City / Spokane - Milwaukee / Salt Lake City / Spokane - Milwaukee / Salt Lake City / **Tacoma** (we have a winner!) SLC I can sort of understand, since my father was raised in Montana and I spent a fair chunk of my life there. Madison and Milwaukee are total mysteries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regional-expressions-you-didnt-always-realize-were-not-widespread/930263.md?page=15)