# Stuff known as "The \[blank\]" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 12, 2011, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208 "2011-06-12T08:35:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/21 "2011-06-12T20:45:52Z")
The Situation Room …or for the JS fans in the house, just [The Situation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sorrentino). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/22 "2011-06-12T20:48:12Z")
Not many people outside Middle Tennessee would know to do so, but around here Murfreesboro is just “The Boro.” (I can imagine that if they have to spell it out in print for whatever reason, many wouldn’t use my spelling.) How many besides Hasselhoff get to be The \_\_\_? Fonzie = The Fonz. Who else? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/23 "2011-06-12T21:35:51Z")
DC is known as “The District” and is surrounded by “The Beltway”. Both are terms that could be used and understood all the way in California. There’s also “The Good Book”. A close, but not perfect, one is “the ocean.” There are several, but you never hear anyone say “Oceans are…” ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/24 "2011-06-12T21:43:24Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > DC is known as “The District” and is surrounded by “The Beltway”. Both are terms that could be used and understood all the way in California. Neither term would be used or understood in any place I have ever lived. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/25 "2011-06-12T22:42:56Z")
Well, there’s “The Shore”, used in NYC (at least) and NJ to refer to the NJ coastline. Charlottesville, VA, is (or was, in the 80s) called “The Hook”, a reference to the capital ‘C’ when the name is abbreviated as C’ville. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/26 "2011-06-12T22:43:39Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Heh, I think that’s one of **Alessan** ’s peeves. . You betcha. I mean, it’s one of the few modern Hebrew word foreigners know, and not only do they not know what it means, they aren’t saying it right. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/27 "2011-06-12T23:57:13Z")
It’s my understanding that the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company is commonly referred to as the Firm. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/28 "2011-06-13T00:02:31Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > As is San Francisco. It’s a bit different - I imagine many cities are referred to as ‘the City’ in a context where people would know which city you’re talking about, but in this case it usually means ‘financial firms in the City of London, by which we mean the old city of London, also known as the Square Mile.’ ‘He works in the City’ would mean ‘he works in that tiny part of London, probably in some of financial or possibly legal company,’ not ‘he works in London.’ The Square Mile is another one, of course. One of the BBC’s widely-used nicknames is the Beeb. Would anybody really say ‘CIA’ instead of ‘the CIA’? Names usually don’t take the definite article, but they do in some instances, and agencies are one of those. Corporations too, hence ‘the BBC,’ not ‘BBC.’ ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/29 "2011-06-13T00:33:29Z")
I can’t believe this thread has gotten so far without a mention of “the syndicate” or “the mob.” In re: the city–that term is used to mean Manhattan, too. I’ve heard people in the outer boroughs of NYC say, “I’m going into the city” to mean “I’m going to Manhattan.” The Bronx is the Bronx. I’ve heard immigrants there call it simply “Bronx.” At some point, the “the” might stop showing up in most people’s speech. Some names of physical ailments or sensations often get a “the” tacked on, for whatever reason. No-one says that someone has “yaws.” Rather, they have “the yaws.” You can’t give someone creeps; you give them “the creeps.” Similarly, you can get the giggles, or the shivers. Getting just “giggles” or “shivers” simply doesn’t happen. Some physical problems, for reasons I don’t understand, don’t seem to take a “the.” Like appendicitis, or diabetes, or fever. Go figure. For those of us in evolution and ecology–“The American Museum” is the American Museum of Natural History, in NYC. We all know there are plenty of other museums in the US, but that’s not what we mean when we use the term. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/30 "2011-06-13T04:16:31Z")
On TV at least cops identify one another as “on the Job.” I think nearly every urban center is known as “the city.” I’ve heard edge of the county people refer to the county seat as the city. Kansas; total county pop. 4000. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/31 "2011-06-13T07:36:52Z")
Another Israeli one - the Israeli equivalent of the Pentagon, holding the military’s high command and the offices of the Ministery of Defense, is an enclosed neighborhood in Tel Aviv known to everyone as “the Kiryah” (“the Campus”). Its official name was changed a few years ago to Camp Yitzhak Rabin, but AFAIK, no-one has ever called it that. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/32 "2011-06-13T07:47:02Z")
From fiction: “The Shire” ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/33 "2011-06-13T09:57:41Z")
The pill. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/34 "2011-06-13T10:09:51Z")
The Good Book= Bible ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/35 "2011-06-13T14:15:37Z")
In an old Cecil column, I believe he cited three things that are known worldwide as “The [blank]”:[ul] [li]The Pill, for the birth control pill, already mentioned;[/li][li]The Champ, for Muhammad Ali;[/li][li]and The Bomb, for the atomic bomb.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/36 "2011-06-13T14:16:47Z")
The Qur’an The Confessions of Nat Turner The Beatles The Gambia The The (band name) This can very quickly spin out into infinity… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/37 "2011-06-13T14:21:30Z")
For fans of the Coens, Jeff Bridges or Sam Elliott there’s The Dude! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/38 "2011-06-13T14:43:03Z")
The Village. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/39 "2011-06-13T14:52:45Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The Qur’an > The Confessions of Nat Turner > The Beatles > The Gambia > The The (band name) > > This can very quickly spin out into infinity… I think you misunderstand the point of the thread. There aren’t other Beatles that one might be referring to. There aren’t other confessions of Nat Turner. There aren’t other Qurans. There are, however, several cities, good books, beltways, Mossads, agencies, bombs, and pills. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208/40 "2011-06-13T14:56:18Z")
> [@Scribble](#): > > \ > Some physical problems, for reasons I don’t understand, don’t seem to take a “the.” Like appendicitis, or diabetes, or fever. Go figure. > \. I have heard a rural usage of “the diabetes.” There’s also the flu. Also, the US usage of “in the hospital” vs “in hospital” in Europe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stuff-known-as-the-blank/585208.md?page=3)