14 Things Georgians Say That Sound Strange to Everyone Else

Do you know what a Georgian means when they ask what kind of coke you want?

If you’re not from the South, we’re willing to bet you don’t.

These are the words and phrases Georgians say that leave many Americans across the country completely lost.

1. Carry

A Georgian offering to “carry” you somewhere isn’t planning to lift you off the ground.

Carry means drive, give a ride, or take you there in a car.

“I’ll carry you to the airport” is a favor, not a workout.

Grandmothers carry folks to church every Sunday morning without breaking a sweat.

Feet never leave the ground.

2. Ill

Tell a Georgian that Aunt Linda is “ill,” and they won’t ask what she caught.

Nobody’s sick.

She’s just cranky and short on patience, letting the whole room know it.

“He’s been ill all morning” points at a bad attitude, not a bad cold.

By August, a week of gnats and wet heat can leave a whole county ill before lunch.

It’s a temper, not a temperature.

3. Bless Your Heart

No phrase Georgians use travels with more hidden freight than “bless your heart.”

Sometimes it means exactly what it says, a kind word for someone having a hard week.

Other times it’s a velvet glove around a slap.

“Bless your heart, you tried” can mean you failed, and everyone at the table knows it.

It all rides on the tone.

An outsider hears kindness, while a Georgian hears the verdict.

4. Fixin’ To

“I’m fixin’ to run to Chick-fil-A” means the keys aren’t in hand yet, but they’re about to be.

Fixin’ to is the verge, the half-second right before a thing happens.

Nothing’s fixed, and nothing’s broken.

The “g” fell off somewhere around the Chattahoochee and never came back.

5. The Devil’s Beating His Wife

When rain falls while the sun’s still shining, a Georgian nods at the sky and says the devil’s beating his wife.

They mean a sunshower, the kind that spits on you at a Braves game and dries up before the seventh inning.

The image reaches back through centuries of folklore, with a version turning up in a 1703 French play.

Nobody’s sure how it crossed the ocean and settled in the South.

It just did.

What sounds like a horror story to everyone else is just plain weather to a Georgian.

6. Coke

In Georgia, “coke” works as a generic term for any soft drink, so the follow-up question is “what kind?”

A “coke” can turn out to be a Sprite, a root beer, or an orange Fanta.

You answer with the brand, then they bring it.

It tracks, since Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton mixed the first Coca-Cola in 1886, and the word stuck to everything fizzy.

Even the Sprite.

7. Might Could

Georgians love to stack two helping verbs where the rest of the country uses one, and “might could” is the favorite.

“I might could help you move” means maybe, probably, with an exit door left open.

Linguists have a name for it: The double modal.

Everybody else just calls it a typo.

It’s the politest way to half-commit ever invented.

8. Directly

Georgians use "directly" to mean soon, not straight ahead.

"I'll get to it directly" promises action, eventually.

Any minute now.

How soon depends on the porch, the weather, and how good the conversation is.

On a slow afternoon in Savannah, directly can stretch clear past sundown.

9. Yonder

Anything a Georgian can see but not quite reach sits "over yonder."

Yonder means over there, somewhere in view but off in the distance.

"It's yonder past the Baptist church" counts as directions.

The word usually comes with a nod of the chin toward the spot.

Not exactly precise.

10. Madder Than a Wet Hen

Picture a soaked hen on a red-clay farm, feathers plastered down, spitting and ready to flog anything that comes near.

That's a Georgian "madder than a wet hen," furious and well past merely irritated.

Steer clear.

11. Buggy

Walk into a grocery store in Georgia and someone will tell you to grab a buggy.

A buggy is the cart, the metal basket on four wheels, and one wheel always drags sideways.

The name rolled over from the horse-drawn kind, long since retired.

Newcomers picture a wagon from a history book.

Mind the wobbly wheel.

12. Mash That Button

Waiting on an elevator in Georgia, you don't press the button, you mash it.

To mash is to push down firm, a good solid poke at whatever needs pushing.

"Mash the gas" means speed up, and "mash that button" means somebody's waiting on the elevator.

At a crosswalk on Peachtree Street, you mash the button and wait for the walk sign.

No potatoes involved.

13. Cut off the Light

Whoever leaves a room last in Georgia hears the same order: "Cut off the light."

Cut it off and the switch goes down, cut it on and the switch goes right back up.

In a July with the air conditioning running nonstop, a Georgia parent cuts off every light in the house to fight the power bill.

Flip it down.

14. Hosepipe

"Grab the hosepipe" just means fetch the garden hose.

It's the same green coil the rest of the country just calls a hose.

The extra syllable comes free.

On a hot afternoon, kids run through the hosepipe in the front yard while it's going.