# US Regional Vocabulary Differences **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 5, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006 "2009-01-05T22:31:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/61 "2009-01-06T14:39:35Z")
An interesting online survey on a hundred or so of these questions is [here.](http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html)[Here’s](http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_93.html) the “on line”/“in line” map, for example. Marinara is only called “gravy” by Italian Americans, all through the Northeast in my experience. Fortunately there’s little chance of confusing the red and the brown in most circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/62 "2009-01-06T14:40:55Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I use “you guys” fairly often and I have no recollection of a woman calling me on it. I think they just breed ornery folk up in NY. 😃 I’ve been out in California for 25 years now so it’s people out here that think it refers to only men. I’m sure that most people in NY knows what it means. ---
**Author:** ![LemmeOut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f9b8f/32.png) [@LemmeOut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LemmeOut)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/63 "2009-01-06T14:48:48Z")
I had a coworker from Michigan totally baffle me by referring to the “doorwall” in our office. Come to find out, she was talking about the sliding glass door. ---
**Author:** ![texasoysterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/58956e/32.png) [@texasoysterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/texasoysterman)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/64 "2009-01-06T15:48:01Z")
I live in Pittsburgh now (native Texan) and as has been said already, they have a very odd way of speaking around here (and I’m not even talking accents!). My wife, native Pittsburgher, always says to “open the light” meaning to turn it on. She also says she needs to “redd up the house” meaning clean up the house. When I first moved here, I went to a fast food place and asked for my burger “all the way” and got a blank look. Apparently around here they say “with everything.” My wife’s aunts used to call spaghetti sauce “gravy.” (Sicilians) Now, I say “pop” instead of “coke.” I still say “ya’ll” though. ---
**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, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/65 "2009-01-06T17:12:16Z")
> [@Nutty\_Bunny](#): > > My brother has lived in Cleveland for a couple of years now and he told me that you guys drop your Ls, as in “It’s code outside” instead of “It’s cold outside”. But, I don’t know what a tree lawn is. I’ve never heard anyone say “code” for “cold.” And yes, I know what a tree lawn is . . . I even have one . . . with a tree on it. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/66 "2009-01-06T19:26:07Z")
What about sneakers/gym shoes/tennis shoes? I was born in Michigan and moved to Tennessee when I was 12 years old. I started out saying gym shoes, but now say tennis shoes for athletic shoes. But I use “sneakers” for the non-athletic types of those shoes. So, Nikes are tennis shoes, but Converse are sneakers. I call rain boots “wellys” which I think is short for Wellingtons? And I go to the grocery. (Not the supermarket or grocery store.) ---
**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:** [January 6, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/67 "2009-01-06T19:30:53Z")
> [@Jelly\_Roll](#): > > What about sneakers/gym shoes/tennis shoes? > > I was born in Michigan and moved to Tennessee when I was 12 years old. I started out saying gym shoes, but now say tennis shoes for athletic shoes. But I use “sneakers” for the non-athletic types of those shoes. So, Nikes are tennis shoes, but Converse are sneakers. > > I call rain boots “wellys” which I think is short for Wellingtons? > > And I go to the grocery. (Not the supermarket or grocery store.) I used “gym shoes” and “tennis shoes” growing up. “Gym shoes” were probably the most popular in this area. Now I default to “gym shoes” and occasionally use the word “sneakers” as well. As for “galoshes,” we used galoshes to refer to those rubbery overboots you would wear out in the rain, not something you would use for the snow. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/68 "2009-01-06T19:56:38Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > I’m from Cleveland, where everything about our speech is absolutely perfect. Who knows what a tree lawn is? It’s a DEVIL STRIP, dammit. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/69 "2009-01-06T20:11:44Z")
Hm. I wear running shoes or runners. Wellies? I didn’t know anyone on this side of the Atlantic said wellies, but, yes, wellies is short for Wellingtons, meaning the Iron Duke and his boot design. I go to the store to buy groceries. Sometimes I go to the mall, and I say “mall” as in “all”, but I knew someone who said “mall” as in “Al” and it used to drive me nuts. I know someone who smoked Pall Mall cigarettes and she said “Pell Mell” and I think she was from New York. Is it a deck or a patio? It’s a deck _to me_ if it’s attached to your house but not on the ground, it’s a patio if it’s on the ground. Your pool might be near there and you would wear a bathing suit. No one here says “swim suit” although guys say “trunks”. The living room is as likely to be called “the front room” as not, and it looks out on my front yard, although it’s also a lawn. The car is in the carport, and my neighbour calls hers carport even though it’s a separate enclosed building that I would call a garage. I say “gar AAgze” or something like that, but some people say “gar-adge”. One key word here in BC is how you say Kitsilano. Or Tswassen. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/70 "2009-01-06T20:12:36Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > I am a senior Southerner. We drank co-colas and either co-dranks or col-dranks. The default co-cola was Coke. Pepsi and RC Cola were the other two. If you had a Moon Pie, you were supposed to eat it with an RC Cola just out of tradition. Col-dranks were things like Orange Crush and Nehi Grape or Root Beer. Dr. Pepper was borderline between a Co-cola and a col-drank. > > Sometimes we put salted peanuts in our bottled drinks. They were good too! Co-colas came in a kind of small bottle that costs 5 cents. > > A davenport is a small desk – usually with drawers on the side. In West Tennessee we sat on a couch. In Middle Tennessee we sit on a sofa. > > When I was little we went to the movie The- **ATER** on Saturday nights. > > Sometimes we would wait _on_ people to finish eating or finish getting dressed before we would go. There was a saying, “If you’re waiting on me, you’re losing time.” > > My sister’s name is Mary. My mother calls her “May-ree.” I call her “Merry.” And she calls herself “Marry.” She had a boyfriend that called her “Murry.” > > I wish Maine would lend us “wicked good.” That is the **best** expression! Hi **Zoe** I think wicked is just a substitute for very but with the Maine accent it is funny. We also say “That new shirt sure looks wicked sharp” and That nate fella, he sure is wicked smart" When I first came to TN a lady said, “I’ll be back Tuesday week” Then she saw I had no idea what she meant and she said “You ain’t from aroun here r ya?” As you know, she meant a week from Tuesday. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/71 "2009-01-06T20:28:18Z")
> [@vison](#): > > Hm. I wear running shoes or runners. Wellies? I didn’t know anyone on this side of the Atlantic said wellies, but, yes, wellies is short for Wellingtons, meaning the Iron Duke and his boot design. I wear running shoes as well. > [@vison](#): > > I go to the store to buy groceries. Sometimes I go to the mall, and I say “mall” as in “all” :: nods :: > [@vison](#): > > Is it a deck or a patio? It’s a deck _to me_ if it’s attached to your house but not on the ground, it’s a patio if it’s on the ground. And a deck is made of wood, but a patio is made of cut stone blocks (if you’re rich) or brick or precast concrete ‘patio stones’, which are laid in sand on the ground. > [@vison](#): > > Your pool might be near there and you would wear a bathing suit. No one here says “swim suit” although guys say “trunks”. Bathing suit, yup. > [@vison](#): > > The living room is as likely to be called “the front room” as not, and it looks out on my front yard, although it’s also a lawn. The car is in the carport, and my neighbour calls hers carport even though it’s a separate enclosed building that I would call a garage. I say “gar AAgze” or something like that, but some people say “gar-adge”. We say ‘gur-ADGE’, and sometimes condense that to ‘gradge’. 🙂 My Australian co-worker said ‘GAIR-idge’. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/72 "2009-01-06T20:45:21Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > Marinara is only called “gravy” by Italian Americans, all through the Northeast in my experience. Fortunately there’s little chance of confusing the red and the brown in most circumstances. Not in New Jersey. Maybe it’s the heavy Italian influence, but lots of people call it gravy. As far as I’ve ever heard, “gravy” specifically implies the thick, red, cooked all day by your Italian granny kind of tomato sauce. > [@Karyn](#): > > I say that too and it’s not gender-specific. I get so tired of women joking “but what about me?” when I say it. Is that as common outside of NY? Bwuh? Really? It’s hard to imagine that people think of “you guys” as referring only to men! I use it to address all-female groups without even thinking about it. Example: “You guys want some coffee?” Well, that’s good to know, in any case. If I heard a woman joke “but what about me,” I’d probably think she was trying to draw attention to the fact that she was female. Or a pedantic jerk. Or both. I’d think she was annoying in any case. I mean, I’d still think she was annoying for saying it, but at least I’d know that I did, indeed, refer to her as male according to her way of thinking. > [@](#): > > Jeans/Dungarees - I remember someone laughing at me in college for calling them jeans, but she was the only person that I’ve ever heard refer to them as dungarees. I’m not sure where she picked that up. The only people I’ve ever heard say “dungarees” were either quite old or trying to be ironically hip. > [@texasoysterman](#): > > She also says she needs to “redd up the house” meaning clean up the house. I also used “red up” upthread. I’m only mentioning it again because I remembered that this term was a plot point on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I’ll spoiler it: The episode involved a nanny who claimed to be from…I forget where. But Goren pegged her as coming from Western PA because she used the term “red up.” It’s very specific to the area, and it’s not something that people easily pick up just from living there for a while. Good call on “open the light,” too! Ahhh…nostalgia. I miss gahn dahntahn for an Ahrn City.\* That’s another regionalism–people pronounced the I (eye) sound in many words like “ah.” It was almost like they were swallowing the sound! This was very obvious in most cases, and also very easy to pick up. They did say “I” (referring to themselves) normally. I also noticed people in Pittsburgh call traffic lights “redlights” even if they happen to be green. Do people in other areas do that too? So, do you people call those concrete highway barriers “Jersey walls” or “Jersey barriers?” I got into an argument with a friend from Maryland over this issue. - Okay, so I lie. I didn’t drink Iron City beer voluntarily. Nasty nasty stuff. Interestingly, it tasted like copper, not iron. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Miscue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Miscue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miscue)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/73 "2009-01-06T20:46:19Z")
> [@CAT\_1](#): > > I don’t know how much stock you all put in wikipedia, but I did find one reference to galoshes as rubbers there too. It also mentioned that they are called, gumshoes, dickersons, and overshoes. In southeastern Louisiana and coastal Mississippi we called them ‘shrimp boots’. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/74 "2009-01-06T21:47:17Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Bwuh? Really? It’s hard to imagine that people think of “you guys” as referring only to men! I use it to address all-female groups without even thinking about it. Example: “You guys want some coffee?” I’d ask, “You gals want some coffee?” Nobody I know or talk to uses it, and a lot of girls think it’s cute. 🙂 ---
**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:** [January 6, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/75 "2009-01-06T22:18:54Z")
Oh, I remembered another one. Some people call green peppers “mangoes!” I still can’t wrap my head around that one. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/76 "2009-01-07T00:00:35Z")
> [@Karyn](#): > > I’ve been out in California for 25 years now so it’s people out here that think it refers to only men. I’m sure that most people in NY knows what it means. Ah ha. Misunderstood you. Funny, though; I’ve grown up only in California and Arizona, which is pretty much a suburb of California, and I’ve associated “you guys” with West Coast speak. Lately I’ve preferred using “y’all” instead. Slides off the tongue easier. ---
**Author:** ![Natty\_Bumppo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e480ec/32.png) [@Natty\_Bumppo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Natty_Bumppo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/77 "2009-01-07T00:23:33Z")
My dad always complained that nobody in Indiana ever did anything “alone.” The do things “by themselves.” Examples: I painted the garage by myself. I watched the movie by myself. ---
**Author:** ![eldowan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@eldowan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eldowan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/78 "2009-01-07T04:20:20Z")
Central Texas and Houston area: sun out and raining: Devil’s beating his wife Non-alcoholic carbonated beverage: coke (soda less often, but being used more frequently) The long chair (love the term): couch/sofa no difference The room with the long chair, usually the hangout spot in the house: living room/front room. No difference The road that runs along the freeway: Feeder Freeway / Highway: Freeway has entrance/exit ramps; highway’s don’t (generally) greeting: what’s up? what’s going on? How ya been? informal group of people: Y’all public water drinking station: water fountain grassy area in front of a house: lawn/yard. no difference large body of water, not large enough to be a lake: tank / pond clothing for swimming: Guys have trunks; girls have swimming-suits toboggan: no idea, but apparently its something that gets used when some weird thing called snow happens. Go figure. meals: breakfast lunch dinner space between two houses: don’t know. I prefer not having a neighbor withing a stone’s throw, but i’m in appartments now, so I don’t even have a clue. I was raised in Texas ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/79 "2009-01-07T04:57:06Z")
I’ll add a few more notes from Southern Ontario… > [@eldowan](#): > > Central Texas and Houston area: > [snip] > The long chair (love the term): couch/sofa no difference And _chaise longue_ in French simply means ‘long chair’. People mistake ‘longue’ for ‘lounge’ and think it means ‘lounge chair’. 🙂 > [@eldowan](#): > > The room with the long chair, usually the hangout spot in the house: living room/front room. No difference > The road that runs along the freeway: Feeder ‘Service road’ here, though we know what ‘frontage road’ means. > [@eldowan](#): > > Freeway / Highway: Freeway has entrance/exit ramps; highway’s don’t (generally) Yes. Freeways have controlled access and are restricted to motor vehicles of sufficient power to keep up with traffic; highways aren’t. Both are main roads that link different localities. > [@eldowan](#): > > grassy area in front of a house: lawn/yard. no difference Here, the ‘yard’ is the place; ‘lawn’ is one of the things that may cover it. Yards may also be paved or covered in bare dirt. We say ‘front yard’, ‘side yard’, and ‘back yard’. > [@eldowan](#): > > large body of water, not large enough to be a lake: tank / pond Here, we say ‘pond’ if it’s just a hole in the ground, possibly lined, filled with water. A tank is an artificial container that is usually raised above the ground. > [@eldowan](#): > > space between two houses: don’t know. See ‘yard’ above. If the space is intended for vehicles not resident there to pass, it’s probably a laneway or alley. ---
**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:** [January 7, 2009, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006/80 "2009-01-07T05:01:57Z")
> [@eldowan](#): > > sun out and raining: Devil’s beating his wife Interestingly enough, the Hungarians use the same saying for the same situation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-regional-vocabulary-differences/480006.md?page=5)