(I hear some locals have doozies!)
One of my favorites came to mind this morning when I topped off my tea a bit too high - "Sideboards" - it's when you have to lift a cup straight up to your mouth because to tip it you'd pour it overboard.
In a sentence: "Did you pour enough sideboards on that cup?".
Another is "Nouvette". My Mum flabbergasted my SIL when she asked for the 'Nouvette' - my SIL replied "Nah-Vet?" my Mum said, "Yes.".
SIL - "What is that?".
"You know - a Dishcloth!"
Several minutes of pondering later (my SIL was fluent in French) did you mean "Une Lavette?".
More pondering followed....
Apparently it was used so often in my Mum's house growing up that it became a shortened form of the word.
So yes indeed - that is what she meant. And that's still what I call it - Old habits die hard and all.
Where I grew up in Louisiana we had a bunch of these. A shopping cart is a “buggy”. Clothes iron is pronounced “arn”. We had the “all stove up” too — I worked outside all day yesterday and now I am all stove up”. The glove compartment in a car is a pocket. Mild astonishment is phonetically “ahhlbedadgum”. Have to say all at once to get it right.
That last one? Wow....
May fav are southern sayings.like "All stoved up"(Alabama) or "Snatch a knot in your head" and "Hate it for ya"(Georgia)
In Boston we call soda "tonic" and a water fountain a "Bubblah"..lol..
All stoved up? I don't know that one.
I have all the Boston colloquialisms - growing up in MA will do that to you.
A liquor store is a "Packie" and always will be. It perplexes everyone not from the area.
That's where Heath came from (my avatar) - he and his litter mates were dumped off in a box in a dumpster at a Packie, (All rescued and homes found).
In my area of Pennsylvania people often say red up instead of clean or straighten up. I have no idea where the word comes from.
Wursh or warsh instead of wash and bath as a verb instead of bathe. As in "I had to bath the dog." My sister said that last week.
A New England one is Ruff instead of Roof. It makes me wince.
I'm pretty sure warsh would too? lol
My mom always called creek a crick. When I do that it drives my kids batshit crazy! The one that bugs me most is WARSHington or WARSH anything. There is no R in Washington. I knew a teacher in Washington state that said Warshington, and I always wondered how she kept her job.
I had a neighbor who would add R's to certain words - I don't know what State she grew up in?
It drove my Mum batty because she'd do it to my name. I caught her winking at me one day... I never broke the secret! lol
Another colorful one "That smells like a French whorehouse!" - used to reference something being really perfumed - it can be complimentary - or absolutely the opposite.
I used it on one of the cats today when she was trying to snuggle up to a magazine perfume insert "You're going to smell like a French whorehouse Rainey!".
"Gotta go see granny" meaning need to go to the toilet.
Drop a penny.
@Charlene drop the kids off at the pool