9 Things North Carolinians Don’t Realize Are Regional Until They Move Away

You ask a new coworker across the country to grab you some Nabs, and they look at you like you’re crazy.

Lots of North Carolina words and foods feel perfectly normal right up until you’re somewhere else.

Here are the Tar Heel favorites that only stand out once you’re far from home.

1. Cheerwine

Cheerwine was available only in western North Carolina for many years, according to NCpedia.

L. D. Peeler formed the Carolina Beverage Corporation in Salisbury in 1917 to make it.

The name comes from the drink’s cherry flavor and burgundy wine color, which you can see in your glass.

As late as the early 1970s, the farthest east you could buy it was Burlington.

The company didn’t begin expanding into neighboring states until 1981.

Today you can find it in all 50 states, but availability varies a lot.

Midwest shoppers can find it at Kroger, while fans in other parts of the country have to look in specialty stores.

Many people grow up with Cheerwine as an everyday soft drink, so you might not think of it as local.

It was local for decades.

2. Might Could

“Might could” is a double modal, which means two helping verbs sit side by side in one phrase.

North Carolina State University’s Language and Life Project describes the phrase as widespread across the South.

Inside the state, it’s so common that you barely notice it, unless you’re a transplant from the North.

It cuts across social class, too.

If you answer an invitation with “I might could come,” you haven’t promised to show up.

That’s the point.

3. Livermush

Livermush sustained families in the Foothills when times were tough.

The name goes back to the 19th-century Germans who settled in and around Cleveland County.

Our State says the Germans who named it were thinking about survival.

Mack’s Liver Mush & Meats, Jenkins Foods, and Frank C. Corriher Beef and Sausage are family businesses that have made livermush since the 1930s.

If you grew up eating it, livermush may not strike you as regional.

4. Calling a Trunk a Boot

Some older residents in parts of North Carolina’s Coastal Plain call a car’s trunk a boot, the way people in England do.

That includes counties from Bertie and Martin in the north to Brunswick and New Hanover in the south.

It isn’t a British import.

NC State’s researchers describe it as an older form of English, left over from horse-and-buggy days, when the luggage compartment sat under the driver’s seat, by his boots.

So if someone on the Coastal Plain tells you to put your bag in the boot, you’re not hearing a British accent.

5. Nabs

If you ask for Nabs in the Carolinas, you’re asking for a sleeve of peanut butter cracker sandwiches.

The word comes from a Nabisco product called the Peanut Sandwich Packet, which hit the market in 1924.

The company updated the name to NAB in 1928.

The name stuck.

What many people call Nabs is technically ToastChee, the flagship cracker sandwich of Charlotte-based Lance.

The sleeves were priced at five cents and sealed for portability.

They became ubiquitous at filling stations, check-out counters, milk bars, lunch rooms, and newsstands.

Vendors pulled peanut butter crackers on carts and wagons through the textile mills of the Carolina Piedmont.

6. Dingbatter

Dingbatter is an Outer Banks term for meddling tourists.

It's not a compliment.

On Ocracoke and the other Outer Banks islands, visitors were once called foreigners or strangers.

Dingbatter seemed a better fit for tourists who show little common sense.

If you live inland, you may not have heard it.

7. Red Slaw and Dip

Red slaw and dip are part of Lexington-style barbecue.

That style means chopped or sliced pork shoulders or butts with a thin, tomato-based sauce called dip.

Cooks color the slaw with ketchup or dip, which is why it's red.

VisitNC calls the dip tangy.

If you grew up with either barbecue style, you may not realize how different the other style is.

8. Moravian Cookies

Moravian cookies came to central North Carolina with the Moravians who settled there.

They immigrated in 1753 and brought the treat with them.

If you've held one, you know the classic cookie is about two inches across and around a millimeter thick, with scalloped ridges.

The traditional flavors are molasses, ginger, and cloves.

The Winston-Salem area is considered the center of Moravian cookie production.

Notable producers include Salem Baking Company, Dewey's Bakery, and Mrs. Hanes' Moravian Cookies.

9. Sigogglin'

Sigogglin' is the Smoky Mountains word for something that isn't quite straight.

NC State's researchers write the pronunciation as sigh-gog-lin.

It means off from the perpendicular.

On the coast, cattywampus and whopperjawed are favored instead.

Place Names That Trip Visitors

Regional speech shows up in place names, too, and NC State's 2013 State Fair display tested visitors on several.

The display asked whether you could say Corolla, where the second syllable sounds like the first syllable of Raleigh.

It also asked whether you could say Fuquay-Varina and put the emphasis on the right syllable of Concord (the first) and Rowan (the second).