Do you know what this is?

[gwendolyn]

Date: 8/17/2009 2:55:05 PM
Author: Starset Princess
Some of the English words are confusing


Sweaters are Jumpers

Sneakers are Trainers

Pants are Underwear

Pram is Stroller

French Fries are Chips...

Agreed. And my lovable but sometimes annoying fiance will ''correct'' me when I lapse back into American English.

 

[that_someone_special]

I am in MN and my grandparents used to call the remote a clicker. My parents call it a channel changer. I''m like... IT''S A REMOTE!

And, I had not a single clue what a Bubbler was.

But, we use words lke Hot Dish, Pitch-it *throw it away*, and... well I can''t think of any others. I do remember talking to someone out west and he asked me what goes on top of your house. I said, a ROOF. He said "hahahahaha a ROOF? It''s a RUUF (but spelled roof)"

 

[Tuckins1]

To me, a bubbler is a small, hand-held water bong, used for smoking tobacco or marijuana. (I had a lot of "hippie" friends in high school

)

 

[joflier]

Date: 8/17/2009 3:04:08 PM
Author: girlface
Water fountain. People in rhode island called it a bubbler as well. I''m from CT, and went to college in RI. People kept talking about needing to use the bubblers, I thought everyone was just really liberal with their bong usage lol.

HAHAHA!!!

 

[packrat]

It''s interesting, trying to figure out what some of these things are!

Muskmelon, we grow here, tho I don''t eat it, so I knew what that was. We say remote, or just "changer". We drink pop. We say "idnit" too..I don''t know if anyone else does. Could just be that Midwesterners are a strange breed.

 

[cellososweet]

Awww I miss my Mum (she's from New Zealand). So of course I know all these. Hehe. And growing up in the US in the south, I know a lot of other weird ones too. And having spent time in CA, NY, and now Boston, so I'm an oddball. I totally confuse the crap outta people though sometimes. It's funny.

Ooops, I was supposed to quote Gwendolyn. Ding dong!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

water fountain

 

[April20]

I knew a bubbler was a water fountain, but i''m not sure why as I''m from the south. "Clicker" for remote gets used down here all the time, at least by my family. Shopping carts get called buggies all the time in the south as well.

Here''s an old school southern one. And I do mean old school- haven''t heard it out of anyone less than 70 in a looooong time. Anyone heard of a grocery bag/sack being referred to as a "poke". My step-mothers''s family from northeastern Tennessee used that one.

 

[joflier]

Come to think of it, my ex used the word ''turner'' for a remote. That always confused me. It doesn''t turn!!!!

 

[treefrog]

Date: 8/17/2009 8:41:44 PM
Author: joflier
Come to think of it, my ex used the word ''turner'' for a remote. That always confused me. It doesn''t turn!!!!

Oh, you mean the flipper?

 

[gwendolyn]

Date: 8/17/2009 7:26:18 PM
Author: cellososweet
Awww I miss my Mum (she''s from New Zealand). So of course I know all these. Hehe. And growing up in the US in the south, I know a lot of other weird ones too. And having spent time in CA, NY, and now Boston, so I''m an oddball. I totally confuse the crap outta people though sometimes. It''s funny.


Ooops, I was supposed to quote Gwendolyn. Ding dong!

Hahah, that''s great! I think it''s so fun to know what other people call things. If you want to share any of the other weird words you know from your mum, I''d love to hear them.

 

[Delster]

I had no idea what a bubbler was but then we don''t have drinking fountains here. I did know what a clicker was, I''ve heard my Mum say that.

Now, in Ireland, it is perfectly appropriate to ask a school child for the loan of their rubber

 

[atroop711]

Date: 8/17/2009 1:19:25 PM
Author: Mara
ha ha i don't know how i knew that it was a water fountain. but, we work daily with an external vendor from MN and i love listening to them say things then i am like WHAT WHAT WHAT???


i had an ex from MA and he used to say things like pocketbook for purse and dungarees for jeans and pop for soda or coke.


i love regional dialects--so fun.

Mara I'm from NYC and growing up in the 70s it was always pocketbook and dungarees (never pop). We also used to call overalls...farmer pants. It took me a long time to get out of those habits

 

[justginger]

I could hazard a guess as to what bubbler is because I''ve heard of cat automatic watering bowls being called that before!

When I moved down under, I learned a whole new vocabulary. Now my English is a garbled mix of the two - neither cultures think I say things correctly or by their right names!

American terms I use: windshield, sidewalk, marker, cracker or cookie (instead of biscuit), aluminium (with the emphasis on LUM), ketchup, sprinkles (hundreds and thousands is just too long to say!), yield ("give way" is the only example I can find of Aussies not taking the shortest word possible!), ass

Australian terms I use: trolley, nappies, mince, tea (instead of dinner), capsicum, lollies, lacky band, flat, singlet, footie (for AFL), queue, chemist (took me a while to stop saying pharmacy)

My whole type of speech has changed as well - though I do still pronounce Rs on the ends of words (unfortunately for me, my name ends in one, so I''ve been dubbed "Ginga" down here)! I also still pronounce words beginning with D correctly (in the literal sense, anyway). Down here people substitute the J sound for D. So you live in a jewplex instead of a duplex, and the brand of paint is "Jewlux" instead of Dulux, and let''s not forget that you "Do the Jew" instead of "Do the Dew" when you drink Mountain Dew!

It''s funny how different areas in the States have different sayings. People are amazed when they speak to me and I saw something differently to any other American they''ve met -- "but you don''t call it pop?"

 

[gwendolyn]

Date: 8/18/2009 7:05:10 AM
Author: Delster
I had no idea what a bubbler was but then we don''t have drinking fountains here. I did know what a clicker was, I''ve heard my Mum say that.


Now, in Ireland, it is perfectly appropriate to ask a school child for the loan of their rubber

Hahaha! Forgot about that one.

 

[Dannielle]

Drinking fountain, we used to call them bubblers at school.

I live in Australia for reference

 

[joflier]

Justginger - whats a lacky band?

Australians don''t use the word windshield?

 

[Barcelona]

Date: 8/18/2009 7:47:16 AM
Author: justginger
aluminium (with the emphasis on LUM)

THIS drives me crazy when I hear it, which is all too often since I watch Top Gear.

My biggest pet peeve is when people pronounce water as wooter and creek as crik.

 

[charbie]

Date: 8/17/2009 12:50:28 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
I KNOW but I am from WI so that is not fair. My 89 year old grandma asked for one the other day.

DH throw me one though. He mentioned a musk mellon (sp?) I had never heard of that before. It is from Ohio.



ETA: another one (from Ohio) is buggy for a shopping cart. I had never heard that before. Or a sweeper for a vacuum.

Ok, I''m from Ohio, and don''t know what musk melon is, never call a cart a buggy, and rarely would call vacuum a sweeper, though I have heard that. I''ve lived all over the state. Anyone hear the word yins for you all, or davenport for a couch?

 

[joflier]

Date: 8/18/2009 11:03:37 AM
Author: Barcelona

Date: 8/18/2009 7:47:16 AM
Author: justginger
aluminium (with the emphasis on LUM)

THIS drives me crazy when I hear it, which is all too often since I watch Top Gear.

My biggest pet peeve is when people pronounce water as wooter and creek as crik.

That''s another one used around here ALL the time. I can''t stand that!

 

[radiantquest]

Honestly, the only thing I have ever heard of called a bubbler is a glass apparatus for smoking marijuana.

My grandmother called butter oleo.

My stepfather says oil like oool.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 8/17/2009 2:23:23 PM
Author: gwendolyn
I knew that a bubbler was a drinking fountain, but I thought it was an old-fashioned word that I picked up somewhere, like learning about segregation in American history. But I didn''t know it was still used anywhere.

This is international rather than locational within the US, but there are a few things called different names here in the UK than things at home that I didn''t know before I lived here.

Here are a few, in case anyone wants to hazard a guess. They''re all types of food:

courgettes
aubergines
rocket
satsumas

I watch a lot of Jamie Oliver, so I have an unfair advantage.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Date: 8/17/2009 3:02:58 PM
Author: gwendolyn

Date: 8/17/2009 2:53:38 PM
Author: TravelingGal
Nope, have no idea om that one!

It''s also food, but not a single ingredient (in case you want to hazard a guess

).



For anyone up for guessing, here are a few non-food items which you may be more familiar with:

boot
bonnet
pavements
torch
a flannel

Aaaaaaannnnnd, I lived in London and hung out with car people almost exclusively in my spare time.

 

[Harleigh]

My entire family is from WI and I had no idea what my mom was talking about when I was a kid. I was born and raised in CA, so who knew? She still calls them bubblers to this day, I think just to annoy me!

 

[Harleigh]

I just thought of two my grandma used all the time that I know what they are and never quite got:

Breezeway

Davenport

Anyone care to venture a guess?

 

[AGBF]

I guessed "bubbler", although I have no connection to Wisconsin. It just sort of made sense to me?

When I was growing up, "dungarees" were definitely synonymous with "blue jeans". I still say, "pocketbook" and "purse" interchangeably. In fact, "pocketbook" sounds more natural. I often find it hard to remember which word is the word that is not used by all regions to mean, "bag".

By the way, I am from Connecticut, the southernmost state in New England. (Forget the fact that I am presently a legal resident of Virginia. They can make me live there, but they can't make me a Virginian!)


AGBF

 

[AGBF]

Date: 8/18/2009 6:37:51 PM
Author: Harleigh

I just thought of two my grandma used all the time that I know what they are and never quite got:

Breezeway

Davenport

Anyone care to venture a guess?

Breezeway-area between house and garage

Davenport-sofa

AGBF

 

[AGBF]

Date: 8/18/2009 5:53:53 PM
Author: radiantquest



My grandmother called butter oleo.

She probably really knew that butter was butter. Oleo (or Oleo-Margarine) was the cheap butter substitute. Now it is sold as margarine and as a healthy substitute for butter and is yellow, but during World War II it was white and sold with a little tube or vial of yellow color that one mixed into it at home so that it looked more like butter. The only reason your grandmother would have called butter, "oleo" was if her family got so used to using margarine, that to them it was their butter!

 

[Anastasia]

I am from the Philadelphia area, and am very guilty of saying "wooder" for water. It was pointed out to me in college that it is waaahter, but I didn''t know any different - it''s the only way I''ve ever heard it! I''ve never gotten the "crick" thing, but I guess it''s no more wrong than wooder. Pocketbook and Purse are absolutely used interchangeably, and I had no idea that it was a regional thing! Dungarees is used here, but mostly by the older generation.

I''m guessing that "rubber" is an eraser?

I have an acquaintance from New Zealand, and the only way she pronounces the letter "e", is as a long e, so the word bed, is beed. I find it fascinating to talk to her, but it is a little challenging to keep up, as I have to translate her long e''s into short e''s.

My dad is from upstate PA, and pronounces "film" with two syllables, like "filum". It amuses me!

 

[justginger]

joflier - a lacky band is a rubber band or a hair tie. And no, no windshields - they''re windscreens down here.

Barcelona - I can see the irritation with aluminium, because when you actually dissect the word, it''s very obvious it should be pronounced in the British way. It ends in "Ium", not just "um" like Americans pronounce it. Bad habits are so hard to shake though!