15 Phrases Marylanders Say Without Realizing Nobody Else Does

Some words sound perfectly normal until a visitor gives you a funny look.

Marylanders pick up local sayings so early on in life that they may never notice how unusual they are until an out-of-stater questions them.

Here are the phrases that leave other Americans scratching their heads.

1. Down the Ocean

Down the ocean is how locals talk about a trip to Ocean City.

The Baltimore Sun’s glossary gives the pronunciation as DOW-nee OA-shin and calls it an idiom for going to the seaside.

Some locals say it without a second thought.

For three months of the year, Ocean City becomes the second-largest city in Maryland, with only Baltimore having more people.

The boardwalk runs nearly 2.5 miles, so if you walk it, you’ll want comfortable shoes.

2. Hon

Hon is Baltimore’s short form of honey.

If someone in Baltimore calls you hon, the glossary lists it as a term of endearment.

It’s pronounced hun.

3. Natty Boh

Natty Boh is Baltimore’s short name for National Bohemian beer.

If you order a Natty Boh in Baltimore, you’re asking for National Bohemian.

A 2011 Baltimore Sun story called it a longtime local favorite for its affordability.

Stroh Brewery Co., then the owner, closed its Halethorpe brewery in 1996.

Pabst, the owner, had announced Natty Boh would return to Maryland on tap.

4. Zinc

If you hear zinc in Baltimorese, it means sink.

Among the pamphlet’s 130 entries was zinc for sink, the AP reported in 2006.

It also listed “fahr” for fire and “Murlin” for Maryland.

If you look the word up, a later glossary of Baltimore speech spells it zink.

5. Sook

Sook is what Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources calls a mature female blue crab.

Shortly after mating, a sook moves to the saltier waters of the Chesapeake Bay near the ocean.

If you flip a blue crab over, its apron shows which sex you’re holding.

If you want to spot a sook, look for a rounded apron, since a male’s is long and slender, shaped like an inverted T.

6. Free State

If you hear Maryland called the Free State, the state’s official manual says Maryland was first recognized as one on November 1, 1864.

That’s the day the Maryland Constitution of 1864 took effect and abolished slavery inside the state’s borders.

In 1923, a Georgia congressman who backed Prohibition denounced Maryland as a traitor for refusing to pass a state enforcement act.

Baltimore Sun editor Hamilton Owens answered with a mock-serious editorial called “The Maryland Free State.”

It argued that Maryland should secede from the Union rather than ban the sale of liquor.

Owens popularized the nickname in later editorials.

7. Arabber

Arabber is Baltimore’s word for a street peddler who sells fresh produce from a horse-drawn cart.

A 2007 Baltimore Sun piece says the local term A-rab is pronounced AY-rab.

If you hear AY-rab in Baltimore, that’s the peddler the word describes.

A 1987 Smithsonian festival essay calls the word arabbing peculiar to Baltimore, Maryland.

Horse-drawn wagons once supplied city dwellers with fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and poultry, and ice, wood and coal.

The Sun piece also says a nonprofit called the Arabber Preservation Society formed in 1994.

8. Warsh

If you hear warsh in Baltimore, you’re hearing wash with an extra r.

The glossary lists it as a verb meaning to wash.

Some Baltimoreans slip that r in when they talk.

If you hear mere in Baltimore, the speaker means a mirror.

9. Coddie

A coddie is a fried patty of salted cod, mashed potato, onion and saltines, according to a Johns Hopkins University library blog.

It's sometimes called the poor man's crab cake.

If you order a coddie, you'll eat cod and potato.

10. Lake Trout

Lake trout isn't trout, and it doesn't come from a lake.

If you see lake trout on a Baltimore menu, it's a breaded, deep-fried carryout dish.

The library blog names the fish as silver hake, also called whiting, from the Atlantic Ocean.

11. Ayo

Ayo is a Baltimore greeting, according to a 2023 Mental Floss guide to the city's slang.

Where people elsewhere say yo, Baltimoreans use the two-syllable ayo.

If you hear aye-OH in Baltimore, it's used to get your attention or to express surprise or interest.

12. Old Line State

Old Line State is one of two nicknames in Maryland's official state manual.

According to some historians, General George Washington gave Maryland that name to link it with its regular troops, the Maryland Line.

Washington College's archives blog ties the nickname to August 27, 1776, when 400 Marylanders made sure the Continental Army's retreat could happen at the Battle of Brooklyn.

If you hear Old Line State, you're hearing a name tied to the Maryland Line, the state's regular troops in the Revolutionary War.

13. Bawlmer

Bawlmer, or Baldamore, is how Baltimore's glossary of local speech spells the city's name.

Say Bawl-MURR or Bawl-DAH-more out loud, and you'll hear Baltimore the way the entry spells it.

The Mental Floss guide also lists B-more as another way to say the city's name.

14. Purple Friday

Purple Friday went official on January 18, 2024, when Governor Wes Moore's office proclaimed it in honor of the Baltimore Ravens' season.

The proclamation made every Friday Purple Friday for as long as the Ravens were in the 2024 NFL playoffs.

The state would be wearing purple on Fridays to show support.

If you wore purple on a Friday during those playoffs, you were joining that show of support.

15. Charm City

Charm City started as an advertising slogan.

In 1974, the Baltimore Promotional Council Inc. told readers in newspaper and magazine ads that Baltimore was "Charm City, U.S.A."

If you spot Charm City in a Maryland business name, you're looking at a phrase that began as a 1974 advertising slogan.

The council was a forerunner to the Baltimore Development Corp., the Baltimore Banner reported on December 2, 2024.