A Chicagoan who had just moved to Tennessee was washing his car with a garden hose when his neighbor came over and asked to borrow his hosepipe.
Having no idea what a hosepipe was, the Chicagoan replied, “Sorry, I don’t have a hosepipe.” The neighbor gave him a strange look, said “OK,” and returned home. Only later did the Chicagoan learn that “hosepipe” is a southern term for a garden hose.
This anecdote from Dan Mulligan of Smyrna, Tennessee, is one of several examples of fascinating regional terms and expressions sent to me by readers.
Mulligan, a “pahk-yaw-cah-in-Hahhvahhd-yahd” Bostonian who moved south several years ago, reports that, when Tennesseans go “krogering” (grocery shopping, from the Kroger supermarket chain), they push a “buggy” (shopping cart) and place their purchases in “sacks” (paper bags). Arriving home, they relax with a “coke” (a generic term for any carbonated beverage) or “chops” (beer).
Like “chops,” many other terms that are local aren’t low cal. Deborah Maxwell of California says her Boston-born husband still calls a milkshake a “frappe,” and a soda a “tonic.” He also remembers that Beantowners call a submarine or hero sandwich a “spuckie.”
Robert Baker of Neshanic Station, New Jersey, reports that a milkshake blended with ice cream in his hometown of Newburgh, New York, was a “frosted,” while a milkshake with a scoop of ice cream was a “float.” But try floating these terms just a few miles from Newburgh, he says, and you’d get frosty stares.
Until the mid-20th century, the channels carrying rainwater along the edge of a roof were called “eaves troughs” in parts of New England but “spouting” or “rainspouts” in eastern Pennsylvania and the Delmarva Peninsula. But now the southern term “gutters” has gone mainstream, reigning in all areas of the country.
In the past, linguists could peg your home region by the term you used for “seesaw,”e.g., “tilt” or “tilting board” (southeastern Massachusetts); “teedle board” (northeastern Massachusetts); “dandle board” (Rhode Island); “teeter-totter” (New Jersey); “hicky horse” (eastern North Carolina); “ridy horse” (western North Carolina); “tinter” (eastern Connecticut); and “tippity-bounce” (Block Island, Rhode Island).
But, a lass (and a lad), “seesaw” has now become the 800-lb. gorilla, tilting the board so steeply that all the other terms are sliding into its gaping maw and disappearing. Sadly, many other delightful regionalisms now teeter-totter on the brink of extinction.
Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His new book, “Mark My Words,” is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.
