It's a WHAT?

[therestornadosinmysoup]

Can anyone tell me what "bohonks" are?? I grew up with my Dad using this word as slang for something.... I still get a laugh out of it today. Anyone know where it might come from? lol 

[princeichi]

I always get weird looks when I call a soft-bread sub a "hoagie"

Or beach tourists "Shoobs"

And my boyfriend's parents thought it was weird when I called a Car License plate "tags". Speaking of which, he and his parents call soda "cokes", and they're from western North Carolina. It doesn't matter if it's a sprite, or a diet pepsi!! Everything is a coke lmao.

Another thing I get called out on is I grew up around the convenience store chain called Wawa, and I'll mention it off hand, and everyone's like "wtf is a wawa???" (this is a wawa). I'm from South Jersey, close to Atlantic City.

OH AND JIMMIES.

[Majesty]

In Rhode Island some people call milkshakes "Cabinets".  Also, some people call Subs "Grinders".  I remember when I lived in Kentucky all soda was called coke, it didn't matter what flavor you had.

[Sarah-Bee]

I think mostly everyone's familiar with Southern terminology, but I still get awkward looks from non-southerners when I use the term "cattywampus."  it's just an adjective meaning off-center or generally not right.

Like caddycorner which is diagonal across from.  I bet that is where the word cattywampus/caddywamus came from.  Or that is my theory at least.

We say cater-cornered or catie-cornered for something set diagonally across something else which is sort of similar.

Pop is soda over here in, I believe, most of the country Though I've heard some people refer to anything drinkable that's not alcohol or water as pop and others refer to just the fizzy stuff as pop

I live in Yorkshire so I could probably take over this thread with weird sayings and pronunciations of things but they're so commonplace to me that I can't actually think of many at least none of the particularly amusing ones.

We use 'duck' and 'cock' (as in a male bird) as terms of endearment or in greetings, such as "eyup old cock, how's it going?" = "hello dear, how are you?" LOL!

Hmm others? *thinks*

sarnie = sandwich
gannin' (art) = going (out)
bez = run (this is an old one from when I was a teenager, maybe defunct now)
mint = awesome
tapped = not right in the head
a few jars = a few drinks (usually pints of beer)
jinnel/ginnel or snicket = alleyway
gebs = spectacles

That's it for now lol

[TraderTif]

In Rhode Island some people call milkshakes "Cabinets".  Also, some people call Subs "Grinders".  I remember when I lived in Kentucky all soda was called coke, it didn't matter what flavor you had.

And they use the "bubbler" (which ends up sounding like "bubbla") for drinking fountain, too!!  I miss RI sometimes!!

I was born/raised in RI, moved to Vermont for a decade, and have now moved to Kentucky (where I married a guy from Appalachia.)  So it's been QUITE an interesting time, sharing my "northern" vocabulary, and trying to understand my husband's family.

I really got thrown by their expression "that's not enough to fill a hollow tooth".  And it took me a while to get used to hearing my husband call the shopping cart a buggy. 

And I've occasionally thrown my husband by using the expression "side by each" instead of "side by side", calling my pasta sauce "gravy", calling the glove compartment a "glove box", etc.

(And this doesn't even consider accents!!  I STILL can't understand most of my new in-laws!!  The Appalachian accent can be very thick!!!)

[Enolaalone]

I heard a new one at work today - 'a swing and a miss' meaning trying and failing to do something.

[hathorcat]

Oh you guys need some Scottish-ness in here

Like Sarah B sometimes conversation is so filled with replacement words its difficult to remember what is specific to Scotland!

glakit - means very very very dirty
galoot or numpty - means idiot
hammered - means drunk
howfin - means yucky
ken - means "do you know?"
manky - means filthy
schoogle - means to wobble
gubbed - means having been beaten [in a sport or similar] very badly
greetin' - means crying
sleekit - means cunning or sly
haver - means to talk too much and usually about nonsense
hoachin - means really busy or filled with or crowded
shuftey - means to have a little sneaky peek
swally - means to go out and have an alcoholic beverage
wheesht - means shut up!

Please note how in Scotland we have a lot of negative words lol!

[Radiance]

snowbirds- northerners who come down to the coast in winter
coke- any carbonated beverage
bless your heart!- aren't you stupid! or if referring to a child- sorry your baby's so ugly!
dinner- lunch/ midday meal
supper- evening meal
sloshed- drunk
y'all- you all
fixin'- to be on the verge of "we're fixin' to leave" or side dishes of a meal "Put the fixin's on the table"
druthers- preferences
chuck- throw
tumped- spilled
seen- past tense of see

I live in Mobile county, AL which is separated from Baldwin county, AL by Mobile Bay. If you say, "across the bay" as in "I'm going shopping across the bay" you are a low class slob; the proper terminology is "over the bay" as in "We went over the bay last weekend."

ETA: The term "redneck" is often used to describe a trashy kind of southerner, but it actually has Scottish origins.
The Scottish origin to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League Covenant, or "Covenanters", largely Lowland Presbyterians. In 1638 and 1641 many covenanters signed documents which made notice that Scotland wished the Presbyterian form of church government, not the Church of England as the official state church. Some Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia; hence the term "Red neck". Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially the South) were Presbyterian, the definition was to describe them, and then, later, their Southern descendants.

I love language and regional slang!

[zabe77]

Bumbershoot is one of my favorite words!

I love calling the garbage can the 'bin' too, it's so cute for an icky thing.

[Jocelyn]

Another thing I get called out on is I grew up around the convenience store chain called Wawa, and I'll mention it off hand, and everyone's like "wtf is a wawa???" (this is a wawa). I'm from South Jersey, close to Atlantic City.

I was going to mention Wawa too! I'm from Minnesota, and as far as I know the only region-specific term that's stuck with me is pop instead of soda. People here think that just sounds silly. But I came to Philadelphia and was completely dumbstruck by everyone making such a big deal of Wawa. I still don't get it - it's like a gas station, but often without the gas!

[okiegurl1981]

Lol we call crane flies, "skeeter eaters."   
I remember the first time we went to a garage sale while visiting family in Indiana.  People kept calling them rummage sales and I had no clue what they where talking about!  We also had car trouble, and asked someone to drive us to the Ford house to pick up our car.  They asked us were exactly they lived.  We had to explain Ford house = Ford Dealership.

[aellos]

I guess since I'm in the Midwest we don't quite have funny words for things?

Though we don't pronounce our 't's. Ask an Ohioan to pronounce 'Dayton' ROFL.

I also like 'warsh' when people are trying to say 'wash'.

But weird words for things? I dunno. HRM.