The diversity of American English is vast, with regional dialects and vocabulary reflecting the country’s wide-ranging cultures, histories, and influences. Sometimes, Americans even have trouble understanding each other. These 19 words confuse people outside the region they come from.
Cattywampus
If you’re in the South and someone tells you that something is all cattywampus, they tell you it’s either crooked or things have gone awry. Your pictures on the wall may be all cattywampus if someone bumps into them, and after a failed work presentation that has your boss in a fit, you could have your day go all cattywampus.
Hoosier
Someone from Indiana is called a Hoosier. It can also be a term for an unsophisticated or awkward person from a rural part of town. Though no one knows where the term comes from, many Hoosiers proudly wear the name.
Bubbler
Milwaukee newspapers started referencing drinking fountains as bubblers in 1910, when they were called “sanitary bubblers,” “fountain bubblers,” or “water bubblers.” Strangely, Rhode Island is the only other part of the country that uses the term.
Jawn
This “is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, events, places, individual people, and groups of people,” according to Atlas Obscura. For example, “I’ll be at Mary’s jawn tonight. Don’t forget to bring the jawn for my new jawn.” If you have no clue what that means, don’t worry; it’s a Philly thing.
Wicked
Most Americans use the term “wicked” to describe something evil. But the word describes something great, cool, interesting, or fascinating in Boston and other parts of New England. Somebody can also use it to describe the size of something “wicked big.”
Hella
Initially a way of saying “hell of a lot” in Oakland, California, “hella” has been morphed into a part of the everyday vocabulary of the West Coast. Now, “hella” can be used to describe the size of something as being tremendous or synonymously with “extremely.”
Slug
Due to the insane amount of traffic in and out of Washington, D.C., every workday, a system was created for people to carpool to work. Drivers go to designated areas to pick up “hitchhikers” heading to the same part of the city to use the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes; these riders are referred to as slugs.
Packie
Every state has its own names for the store you go to to buy your booze—“party store,” “liquor store,” or “ABC.” In Massachusetts, the liquor store is known as the “packie,” short for “package store.”
Yo’uns
There are many ways to say the plural of “you” in America. The South has the most famous “y’all.” Other parts of the country have “you guys” or “you all,” and Pittsburgh has “yinz.” However, the most obscure may be “yo’uns” in Appalachia.
Crick
You probably hear “crick” and think it is a “crick in your neck,” meaning a painful, stiff feeling in the neck or back. But when traveling in the South and Midwest, a crick is a creek, brook, or spring.
Buggy
While traveling in the South or Midwest, you should be aware that a buggy is not something drawn by a horse that takes you to the crick. It is what people in the area call shopping carts, which you use at the grocery store.
Gription
“My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription” sounds like nonsense to most people. However, in the Upper Midwest, gription is a portmanteau of “grip” and “traction” often used to describe tires, sneakers, and something meant to be thrown.
Ope
The term is a replacement for “uh-oh” and “oops,” often used when someone bumps into someone else. Midwesterners may also blurt out “ope” when something silly or surprising happens.
Grinder
Sandwiches go by many different names around the U.S. For some, they are “heroes,” while others call them “subs.” In the Northeast, they call them “grinders.” Sometimes, the term is used to distinguish a hot sandwich from a cold one (the hot sandwich being a grinder).
Shamp
Shortening words is one of the most common ways to create colloquialisms; shamp is a prime example. In Pittsburgh, shamp is the act of shampooing one’s hair. “Sorry, I can’t go out tonight; I must shamp.”
Tonic
Much like all carbonated beverages become Coke in the South, pop in the Midwest, and soda everywhere else, tonic is how Northeasterners refer to them. So when in New Hampshire, don’t assume tonic is the kind you associate with gin.
Dooryard
Have you been looking for a way to describe that small patch of grass by your front door? Maine has the answer for you. “The flowers in your dooryard were too beautiful to leave your package there.”
Toboggan
In the southern parts of the U.S., a “toboggan” is a woolen hat. In parts of the Midwest, a “toboggan” is a long, narrow sled used for the sport of coasting downhill over snow or ice. It is typically made of a lightweight board that is curved upward and backward at the front.
Frog Strangler
The term refers to a heavy downpour of rain capable of strangling frogs. Although they can breathe underwater, frogs can drown. Rainwater contains less oxygen than fresh water that falls to Earth, making frogs drown faster than the heavy rain might typically cause.
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