The Wide, Wide World Of Slang

[Deleted]

I know this isn't a "slang" issue, but it amused my sister no end. For awhile, she lived in Montana with a guy. Whenever they'd pick up something at a convenience store the guy would say, "Could you put that in a sack for me?" My sister was all, "Sack? A sack is like what Santa Claus hauls around! You should say 'bag.'" She thought it sounded silly.

Anyhow, he came out here to N.E. to visit and they went to a store. He asked to have his purchase put in a "sack." The clerk was puzzled and said, "You mean a 'bag?'" She was very self-satisfied about that.

[foxyepicurean]

When we played tag as a kid, the area where you couldn't be tagged was called gool. In other section of Chicago's suburbs, it was goal.

We must be rather uninventive in the Pacific Northwest--we've always just called that "base."

I've always called the glove compartment in a car just that. But I know some from the Midwest who call it the "glove box", and some from rural Idaho who call it, God help me, the "jockey box."

[suzyp]

Moldy said:

In Canada you say "pop", too. To a lot of people, "soda" is the same as "club soda."

Exactly! When I order a scotch and soda, I don't want colored sugar water ruining perfectly good scotch.

[Ginger]

Exactly! When I order a scotch and soda, I don't want colored sugar water ruining perfectly good scotch.

You don't think context would prevent that from happening?

[suzyp]

I only offer that example as proof that the correct term is pop when it comes to fizzy colored sugar drinks.

[InchoateDetails]

Man, the differences between UK/American/Australian English always amuses me. I remember when I was wearing my Nike's at Heathrow and an English women said she likes my "trainers". I just smiled slowly and walked away. My parents told the 12 year old me that she meant sneakers. My British co-workers always talk about going on "holiday" and I remember a temp asking which holiday she was celebrating.

[chiqui]

In the city where I grew up in NJ, pizzas were called "tomato pies." It would be in neon in the front window and everything. My friends from college would say "Eeewww! Who would want a pie made out of tomatos?"

[bbug]

"Tomato pie" is awesome slang! I think that if I ever have a kid, I'm going to call him/her "My little tomato pie" as a term of endearment, because that is just too weird and cool. Rhode Island was such a boring place to grow up! Well, except for the bubblers (water fountains), and how in some regions of the state milkshakes are called "cabinets."

[brinksteria]

My friends from college would say "Eeewww! Who would want a pie made out of tomatos?"

Now, I'm overcome with the urge to pick up some ready-made pie crust ... fill it up with tomatoes, sugar, flour ... bake at 350 for an hour ... and see what happens. I probably won't eat it. But I feel compelled to bear witness to such a thing.

And now, I apologize for taking this thread to a gross place, but "nanny," in the Bahamas, does not refer to a woman employed to help take care of a child. "Nanny" is slang for scat. It's used as both a noun and a verb, but not as a profanity. No one yells "Nanny!" when they're pissed off.

edited to clarify: by "gross place," I mean scatalogical talk, not the Bahamas.

[colette]

He he. I totally had to look up the word scat, because before I looked it up I had only ever used/heard the word when talking about improvised jazz singing.

I didn't know it had a second, more scatalogical, meaning.