11 Things Pennsylvanians Call by Different Names Than the Rest of America
In southwestern Pennsylvania, company coming means it’s time to redd up.
If you grew up in the Keystone State, you know exactly what that means. The rest of America has to guess.
Here are the things Pennsylvanians call by different names than the rest of America.
1. Gumbands
A gumband is what Pittsburgh calls the rubber band in your junk drawer.
Two sociolinguists from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh call “gumband” the local term for a rubber band.
The word may also have been what the first people to sell rubber bands in Pittsburgh called them.
2. Water Ice
Water ice is what Philadelphia calls the frozen treat you may know as Italian ice.
Billy Penn, a local news site, says the name alone makes it a Philly thing and that water ice is scooped, not shaved.
Italian immigrants brought the treat to Philadelphia around the turn of the 20th century, hoping to recreate the granita they knew from home.
3. Sweepers
Many Pittsburghers call a vacuum cleaner a sweeper.
Natives may not realize that people in other cities don’t call it that.
No broom is involved.
4. Hoagies
Philadelphia asks for a hoagie where you might ask for a sub.
A 2013 map by Joshua Katz, based on Bert Vaux’s dialect survey, found that 73.2 percent of Philadelphians say hoagie for a long sandwich.
The word dates to 1943, and its origin is unknown.
Hoagie also made the trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, two dialects that otherwise developed apart.
5. Down the Shore
Heading to the Jersey Shore from the Philadelphia area is called going down the shore.
Billy Penn reports you won’t hear the phrase much outside the region.
Where the phrase comes from isn’t totally clear, with one explanation tying “down” to south and another tying it to heading from inland toward the coast.
6. Jumbo
Jumbo is what many Pittsburghers call bologna.
The radio show A Way with Words says anyone who uses jumbo for bologna is probably from Pittsburgh or nearby in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The word likely started as a brand name.
Isaly’s, a regional company, sold a lunchmeat under that name.
The brand name then became the generic word for bologna in that part of the country, with printed uses going back to at least the 1970s.
Psst! How much do you know about Pennsylvania’s firsts and landmarks? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Pennsylvania Firsts Quiz
Answer these questions on Pennsylvania firsts and landmarks. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Edwin Drake struck oil near Titusville in which year, launching the modern petroleum industry?
7. Jawn
Jawn is Philadelphia's all-purpose word for a thing.
Atlas Obscura describes it as an all-purpose noun that can stand in for an object, an idea, an event, a place or a person.
Most linguists agree it's a relative of the word joint, so you can hear the family resemblance.
Language writer Ben Zimmer sees jawn as a Philly variant of joint that took shape in the 1980s.
8. Nebby
Nebby is Pittsburgh's word for nosy.
The same PBS essay that lists gumband gives nebby as the local word for nosy.
Pittsburgh Magazine traces it to the Scots-Irish settlers of the 1700s, who called noses nebs.
9. Redd Up
Redd up is southwestern Pennsylvania's verb for tidying a room.
Redd up means clean up or tidy.
Company's coming.
It's a normal part of Pittsburgh vocabulary.
Where Western Pennsylvania's Words Come From
Many of the words and phrases used in western Pennsylvania came over with the Scots-Irish in the 1700s, Pittsburgh Magazine says.
Geography kept that speech largely contained to the area.
The two sociolinguists say words used in southwestern Pennsylvania, including "redd up," are probably Scots-Irish.
10. Pizza by the Tray
Old Forge, in northeastern Pennsylvania's Lackawanna County, sells pizza by the tray and the cut instead of the pie and the slice.
The style is baked in trays and served in cuts rather than slices.
It comes in two varieties, red and white.
Red has a thick crust with tomato sauce and cheese, while white is a double crust around cheese and other fillings with no sauce.
Lackawanna County has about 160 pizzerias, or roughly one for every 1,300 residents.
If you want to try them, the county's Pizza Trail is a self-guided tour of 60 area pizzerias that uses a pizza passport.
11. Buggies
Many Pittsburghers call the shopping cart you push a buggy.
Like sweeper, it's a word people in other cities don't use.
Merriam-Webster also lists baby carriage as one of the meanings of buggy.
Fasnachts on Shrove Tuesday
The fasnacht is the potato-dough pastry Pennsylvania Dutch families fry on Shrove Tuesday, and it isn't simply a doughnut.
Visit PA compares the fasnacht to a doughnut but says the potato dough makes it heavier and denser.
Fasnachts are fried and eaten on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent.
Traditional fasnachts have no hole and are square or triangular rather than round.
In Lancaster County, the preferred spelling drops the middle t, according to a Pennsylvania Dutch language expert.
6 Pennsylvania Foliage Drives That Aren't Worth the Weekend Traffic
A scenic road can turn into a long line of brake lights.
These are the foliage drives we'd skip on a weekend.
6 Pennsylvania Foliage Drives That Aren't Worth the Weekend Traffic
9 Kitchen Changes That Keep Older Pennsylvanians Cooking Safely
A few changes in your kitchen can make cooking safer as the years go by.
These are the changes worth making before the next big meal.
9 Kitchen Changes That Keep Older Pennsylvanians Cooking Safely
