It's a WHAT?

[stopxmotion]

My family says "dupa" to mean your booty or behind!
Also, my grandma will say "the big of it" meaning a larger end of something.

[Gingerbread]

naming my second child snolly gosster now

[Sumire]

My grandmother always calls the sofa/couch a davenport.  In moving about one of the things I noticed was how you described going someplace changed.  It's been a while but I think in southern Michigan you were going "up to Grandma's,"  in the center of Illinois it was "over to Grandma's" and in northern Virginia it was "down to Grandma's."  In Illinois, where I lived, they pluralized you as yous. 

When I worked at a museum in Virginia I heard the Civil War referred to as "The War of Northern Aggression" by a sweet little old lady who didn't take an immediate dislike to my Yankee accent.  I also learned in Virginia that it is ever so important to specify whether you live in northern or southern Virginia and in Loudoun County they'd even specify western and eastern.

My sister married a nice Virginian boy and we still haven't gotten used to him asking us to "cut off the lights."  His mother uses phrases like "you can eat on that for a whole week," when referring to something big like a roast turkey; "like a worm on a hot rock" to describe someone in an uncomfortable situation, and the adjective hateful to describe bad behavior: "He said something just hateful that I won't repeat."

After the whole pop/soda/brand name thing which is such a pain and I think everyone everywhere should just call it soda-pop because it sounds the cutest, the thing I actually had to work the hardest on was my pronunciation of bag, flag etc.  Growing up my mom pronounced them with a long a and my sister and I followed suit.  The weird thing is, no one knows why. The only place I have ever heard that pronunciation is Minnesota and my mom never lived near the Great Lakes until she was in college.  Anyhow people made fun of me for that pronunciation everywhere so now I take a second to school myself to say bag "correctly" when I'm out and about.

[Enolaalone]

This probably won't even make sense to people in the UK, but when I moved from Newcastle to Cardiff there were things that people down here didn't understand I don't even have an accent, we just use different words.

Tab - cigarette
Nebby - nosy
Nash - run, dash, hurry

I'm sure there are more but these are all that spring to mind right now.

[tikibirds]

Nothing for here that I can think off

Although I have been told New Yorkers stand ON line, when everybody else stands IN line

[TwistedWindSox]

In Illinois, where I lived, they pluralized you as yous. 

Eek!! This is one of my biggest pet peeves!!! We had a "teacher" at school (she wasn't a real, certified teacher, just a parent that came in to teach a "careers class" which was basically her talking about how great she was) that always said "yous guys" and stuff like that and it made me want to strangle her!

[mlpcrazy]

YES.
When we first moved here to Iowa about 15 years ago, my family was surprised to learn that people here call chipmunks "squinnies."  I still think it is the dumbest word.

Dibbles I call shenanigans on whoever told you we call them sqinnies LOL!  I've lived in Iowa my whole life and never heard anyone say that.  Always chipmunk or ground squirrel.  Sounds like you've met some weirdos. 

I think the oddest thing I've heard was when I was little, my grandma called boxelder bugs, democrat bugs.  Not sure why, or if there are also republican bugs LOL!  Maybe because of the time of year (now) that they come out? 

[Willows_Firefly]

This probably won't even make sense to people in the UK, but when I moved from Newcastle to Cardiff there were things that people down here didn't understand I don't even have an accent, we just use different words.

Tab - cigarette
Nebby - nosy
Nash - run, dash, hurry

I'm sure there are more but these are all that spring to mind right now.

I now live in Geordie-land and my partner is a native speaker... it leads to confusion more often than one might think!!

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

Thanks to my Mom, I call a refrigerator an "ice box" (yes, the whole thing, not just the freezer) and a shopping cart a "buggy". I had no idea this was at all odd until people start questioning what I meant in college.

We also say "turn down the air" when we want it to be cooler. It makes sense to me (because we want the temperature to go down?) but I've had people argue the opposite.

[HavACrumpet452]

I've never heard of a crane fly called a mosquito hawk. They don't eat mosquitos so why call them that?

My grandma calls the couch a davenport. Scissors are shears. Flip-flops are thongs (lol). The freezer is the ice box. Margarine is oleo.

My elderly co-worker uses the term "dessn't" or "dessent" when she's describing what a person shouldn't do. As in "you dessent do that".

In WI soda and pop are both understood to mean one in the same. If you ask for a coke though you're going to get a coca-cola and not any other soda flavor.

[TwistedRainbow]

We also say "turn down the air" when we want it to be cooler. It makes sense to me (because we want the temperature to go down?) but I've had people argue the opposite.

my hubby and i argue this all the time. when i want it colder i say "turn it down" he says "turn it up". it gets very confusing lol

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

We also say "turn down the air" when we want it to be cooler. It makes sense to me (because we want the temperature to go down?) but I've had people argue the opposite.

my hubby and i argue this all the time. when i want it colder i say "turn it down" he says "turn it up". it gets very confusing lol

Yes, this! I have the same problem with mine.

[bagheera86]

Very mad or upset=mad as a wet hen

But hens are indifferent to being wet

also I heard to say about someone "As welcome as a collect call from china"

[ashes]

I've heard of cattywampus, but not the other terms!

[Marigold]

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.

Post Merge: October 19, 2012, 10:28:45 AM

I've never heard of a crane fly called a mosquito hawk. They don't eat mosquitos so why call them that?

It is because they look like huge hawk sized mosquitos!  I kind of love them.

In WI soda and pop are both understood to mean one in the same. If you ask for a coke though you're going to get a coca-cola and not any other soda flavor.

Must be nice.  I have lived in places where you ask for a coke and they say "what kind".  Coke ought to be Cocacola or at least a cola flavored pop.  While soda and pop ought to be the generic "soda pop fizzy drink you need to specify which kind of".  I've also lived in places where a soda was an icecream float and other places where they don't know what a "pop" is.