5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
19570
424
10
Jan 28, 2026 3:53 PM
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
19570
424
10
nation543
Now let's go to England and talk about all the different ways to say things like, "Geez, the cops took my bottle of water and it made me very upset. I think that he's a bad person for it, and I would like to find ways to take action."
Anfalicious
And this is how you go from dialect to language in the days before fast transport and mass media!
3Davideo
See also: steamed hams
Billis75
I'm from the west coast, I remember the first time I was on the east coast (Philadelphia) and I was wondering why people had christmas lights in their bushes in July. I had heard of fireflies, but didn't know they kind of just hovered there.
DYLANLEE79
It's weird but when you read a lot you pick up coloquilisms from different places and time periods.
mrleemur
Or you make friends around the country and the world, you take back some of their variants, they take some of your’s, it’s just a big ol’ mixing pot of language.
TheOvy
*lightning bugs
lujotu
Tag sale.
slaytrain
Glow bugs
TREXSEXISARMLESS
English people have 100 different names for the remote control.
CedricDur
I had a conversation on Imgur who said people in Portugal ate food off the table. I said no, they insisted, I looked everywhere, could not find it, they point out a small village in a small island off Portugal where there is a festival once a year where this happens. Turns out it was true. But still, other than that small village in that small island, they don't eat food off the table, as the person was trying to warn others who wanted to do tourism in Portugal.
dumbledong69
I don't want wanna shit on Minnesota right now but referring to doing donuts as whipping shittys is unhinged
AnonymousFlyingSquirrel
My favorite from my hometown area is that we call the big sliding glass doors that go outside "door walls." Was in the army for a long time so was around people from all over and that was the one that always made people the most confused or angry, lmao.
SlayerOfGoat
And that guy over there? Yeah, him, dragging the opossum carcass. That's Simple Billy, and he calls them flashy bums, but we exclude him from the census for obvious reasons.
lgkinasen
"flashybums georg is an outlier and should not have been counted."
MadamPuddifoot
That's the most accurate of their names, oddly.
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
AVerySillyPuppy
Typical flashy bum erasure.
graehall
hahahaha. Funny in context, and even funnier if you said it out of context
Ohdearaudrey
My favorite is being from the south and referring to all sodas as “coke”
eepsheep
I'm up here in MI calling it soda and getting looked at like a crazy person. Everyone calls it Pop.
SOLARvsFACISM
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
veesee
It's bunny hug all over again
EverythingYourMotherWarnedYouAbout
Lightning Bugs, not Lighting!
doctorId
It still confuses me that some places call all pop/soda "coke". Like you'd say "Can I have a coke?" and the person would go "what kind of coke?" and you could be like "Ginger ale." Cause like, coke is a specific type of drink. So if you wanted an actual coke, would it go, "What kind of coke?" "Coke."?
augur42
And here's me thinking it's lightning bugs vs fireflies, not lighting bugs /s
viva93
I'm using glitter bats
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
squirrelgirl86
I can't believe no one has linked to this yet: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html
TooSoonOldTooLateSmart
Need to log in. Do you have a copy somewhere?
squirrelgirl86
Huh, I don't pay for the NYT and it let's me see it. I think you might only need an account but not a paid one?
DoubleBeryl
Like how the people of Akron call the area between the sidewalk and street the devil’s strip, which is a term we should all adopt.
angelsword1
Damn it! I was just going to post devil strip to see if anyone noticed.
ricbri695
Well it is Akron, who knows what happens on that strip of grass…
drunkbs
Hey I'm from Akron. That's a just us thing?
angelsword1
Yep
ziralien
.. who the fuck calls them glitter bats
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
SlayerOfGoat
That little town with just 200 peop-did you not read the post??
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
InitHello
In Norway they have several names. One of them is Saint John's Worm. Do as you please with that information.
Marsupialmessiah
Glitter bats it is then
5ywjdPumpkinPrincess
gkrum6847
The New York Times had a US dialect quiz at one point, and apparently the term I grew up using for "yard/garage sale" is very specific. A couple of different names for "Cabbage/Mischief Night" can also be really specific.
TooSoonOldTooLateSmart
We called the night before Halloween, Gate Night. You were allowed very minor vandalism, such as soaping cars. This was 65 years ago.
FjordFiskursson
What term was that? For yard sale.
gkrum6847
Tag sale. I don't know if it's rare in general or just rare for western New England.
FjordFiskursson
Well, i've never heard it before.
talinuva
Same, except for me it was calling medians 'neutral zone's
MartialLol
Who dat?
MarkoffChaney
In Finland they're called glow worm (kiiltomato).
Evenmoreuselessname
So they eat your tomatoes or something??
BadBunnyLadyOfRocksTreesAndDirt
I now think Finland has killer tomatos.
zombiejedediah
Not tulikärpänen?
DdCno1
Same as in Germany (Glühwürmchen), although the 'chen' is a diminutive suffix, so to be more precise, they are called "little glow worms" around here.
LateNightBunnyParty
Glow worms are something different, aren't they? Some kind of larva? Lightning bugs are flying beetles, and they flash rather than just glow steadily.
zombiejedediah
Females of the Northern European type are wingless & look worm-like. In Danish they're "St John's worms", probably because they used to be common around midsummer.
The NZ glow worm is a larva.
LateNightBunnyParty
Awesome! Thanks!
Snooj
In Vermont we call soft serve ice cream a “creemee”. I don’t think that’s used anywhere else. I live in Maine now, but all of my favorite memories of youth were at a Creemee Stand.
LateNightBunnyParty
https://youtu.be/376I-yjzzxw?si=T9DNy7bRb_YljHF1
gkrum6847
I've heard that before, but I grew up further down the Connecticut, so probably just heard it from a Vermonter.