Here in Michigan, we’ve got a few phrases and terms that we and we alone understand. It’s in our nature, depending on what part of the country we live in, to pick up on certain mannerisms that others just wouldn’t comprehend.
So it’s funny when we Michiganders travel outside of the state and are baffled by the dialects that folks in other regions of the country have picked up on. Here are a few such phrases.
- Cabinet
Rakka/Flickr Go to Rhode Island and try to order a milkshake and you may get blank stares in response. That’s because folks there call it a cabinet.
- Hotdish
Darice/Flickr To most of us, it’s a casserole. Travel to the other side of the Upper Midwest, to Minnesota or South Dakota, and it’s hotdish. Makes sense in that it is, well, a hotdish.
- Hella
Pete/Flickr Go to California, specifically the Bay Area, and you’re likely to come across people using the term, hella. It’s like shorthand for hell of and used to emphasize the severity or seriousness of a situation. It’s hella foggy. It’s hella hot. It’s hella… You get it, right?
- Hoagie, Hero, or Grinder
PlanPhilly| EyesOnTheStreet/Flickr It’s a sandwich, a sub. Sometimes we hear it referred to as a hoagie (Pennsylvania), or a hero (NYC)… But a grinder?? That’s all New England.
- Hoss
buck82/Flickr There’s a lot about Texas we don’t understand, and “hoss,” which appears to be slang in TX for friend, is one of those things.
- Jumble Sale
The Shopping Sherpa/Flickr We get garage sale, or yard sale, even rummage sale makes sense… Jumble sale though, not sure we’ve heard that before.
- Sigalert
Michael R Perry/Flickr OK, so most of us have sat in a traffic jam. But by and large, what we consider rush hour is pretty light compared to how commuters have it elsewhere. In Southern California, for example, traffic is consistently so bad that there’s a special word that radio announcers use: Sigalert. It signifies a bad car wreck or other serious incident. To Angelenos, hearing that word can ruin an afternoon. Here? Meh.
- Soda
Roadsidepictures/Flickr We hear out-of-towners use this word to refer to pop all the time. Still manages to get under our skin.
- Thongs
Vicki/Flickr If your mom yelled out to you as you were packing for the beach, don’t forget your thongs, you might be alarmed (why would your mother want you to wear THAT to the beach). Others may just grab their flip flops though.
- Whirlygust
Tom Gill/Flickr Wind gust, strong winds, sure… Whirlygust, though. Sounds like a made up word by a goofy weather man.
- The Industry
Glen Scarborough/Flickr To us Michiganders, if someone’s talking about “the industry,” we may have an understanding that they’re talking about the automotive industry. Out west though? No, that’s all Hollywood, baby.
Saayyyy whaaaaa? Tell us, what are some of the words or phrases that you hear elsewhere that never fail to leave you scratching your head?
Rakka/Flickr
Go to Rhode Island and try to order a milkshake and you may get blank stares in response. That’s because folks there call it a cabinet.
Darice/Flickr
To most of us, it’s a casserole. Travel to the other side of the Upper Midwest, to Minnesota or South Dakota, and it’s hotdish. Makes sense in that it is, well, a hotdish.
Pete/Flickr
Go to California, specifically the Bay Area, and you’re likely to come across people using the term, hella. It’s like shorthand for hell of and used to emphasize the severity or seriousness of a situation. It’s hella foggy. It’s hella hot. It’s hella… You get it, right?
PlanPhilly| EyesOnTheStreet/Flickr
It’s a sandwich, a sub. Sometimes we hear it referred to as a hoagie (Pennsylvania), or a hero (NYC)… But a grinder?? That’s all New England.
buck82/Flickr
There’s a lot about Texas we don’t understand, and “hoss,” which appears to be slang in TX for friend, is one of those things.
The Shopping Sherpa/Flickr
We get garage sale, or yard sale, even rummage sale makes sense… Jumble sale though, not sure we’ve heard that before.
Michael R Perry/Flickr
OK, so most of us have sat in a traffic jam. But by and large, what we consider rush hour is pretty light compared to how commuters have it elsewhere. In Southern California, for example, traffic is consistently so bad that there’s a special word that radio announcers use: Sigalert. It signifies a bad car wreck or other serious incident. To Angelenos, hearing that word can ruin an afternoon. Here? Meh.
Roadsidepictures/Flickr
We hear out-of-towners use this word to refer to pop all the time. Still manages to get under our skin.
Vicki/Flickr
If your mom yelled out to you as you were packing for the beach, don’t forget your thongs, you might be alarmed (why would your mother want you to wear THAT to the beach). Others may just grab their flip flops though.
Tom Gill/Flickr
Wind gust, strong winds, sure… Whirlygust, though. Sounds like a made up word by a goofy weather man.
Glen Scarborough/Flickr
To us Michiganders, if someone’s talking about “the industry,” we may have an understanding that they’re talking about the automotive industry. Out west though? No, that’s all Hollywood, baby.
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