5 Things New Jerseyans Call by Different Names Than the Rest of the Country
Order a ripper in New Jersey, and you’ll get a deep-fried hot dog that splits open in the fryer.
New Jerseyans grow up with names like that, and out-of-staters need a translation.
Here are the things New Jerseyans call by different names than the rest of the country.
1. Hoagie
A hoagie is a submarine sandwich, and a quoted example in Merriam-Webster says the word is common throughout Pennsylvania and much of southern New Jersey.
It’s defined as a large sandwich on a long split roll.
Other words for the same sandwich include sub, submarine and hero.
So if you order a sub, you’re using one of the other words.
In Boston the sandwich is called a submarine, but in Philadelphia it’s a hoagie.
Its origin is listed as unknown.
2. MVC
New Jersey’s version of the DMV is the Motor Vehicle Commission, or MVC.
Federal sites such as USA.gov tell you to contact your state DMV to get or renew a driver’s license.
New Jersey replaced its Division of Motor Vehicles with the commission in 2003.
The State Library lists the commission’s mission as promoting motor vehicle safety through secure, effective and professional motor vehicle services.
Many New Jerseyans say MVC the way people in many other states say DMV.
Where the MVC Came From
The MVC traces its origin to 1906, when New Jersey set up a Department of Motor Vehicle Registration and Regulation.
The department became independent in 1926 and stayed that way until 1948.
That agency was reorganized in 1948 as the Division of Motor Vehicles, inside the Department of Law and Public Safety.
The division moved under the Department of Transportation in 1995.
The commission sits within the Department of Transportation but isn’t part of it.
3. Ripper
A ripper is a deep-fried hot dog. It’s a natural casing hot dog cooked in a deep fryer until rising steam pressure makes the sausage burst open from within.
You’ll know a ripper by the split in its casing.
The rupture floods with boiling oil, leaving a craggly crispness next to the snappy, nearly crunchy casing.
Royal and Anna Rutt, the original owners of Rutt’s Hut in Clifton, invented it, and the stand introduced the ripper soon after it opened in 1928, Taste reports.
Saveur calls the ripper one of four levels of hot dog doneness, and the name has become a catch-all term for deep-fried hot dogs.
Others include the weller and the cremator.
Psst! How much do you know about New Jersey’s firsts and state symbols? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
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The world’s first drive-in movie theater opened in 1933 near which New Jersey city?
4. Shoobie
Atlas Obscura says shoobie is the name for summer visitors to New Jersey's southern coast.
They're the day-trippers, tourists and out-of-towners who descend on shore towns during high season.
That stretch runs from the southern tip of Long Beach Island to Cape May and includes Ocean City and Atlantic City.
The word ties back to the days when day-trippers flocked to Atlantic City carrying their lunches in shoe boxes.
By the 1930s, the Atlantic City Press was calling these visitors shoe-boxers, and shoobies appeared in print as early as 1961.
Philadelphia magazine called shoobie an extremely regional label in 2013, one that applies to the southern half of the Jersey Shore.
Southern New Jersey locals felt the need for a word to describe visitors who don't fit in.
Other places use other words for summer visitors, such as fudgies in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and summer people in New England.
If you spend a summer day in Ocean City, locals may call you a shoobie.
5. Benny
Along the northern coast, including Asbury Park and Seaside Heights, summer visitors are bennies instead.
Shoobies are non-existent in northern New Jersey.
Many local residents see bennies as wreaking havoc on their peaceful towns, the article says.
The word didn't start appearing in print until the 1970s, in the Dictionary of American Regional English.
Visit Seaside Heights in July and locals may call you a benny.
Linguists call the boundary between the two words an isogloss, a line between regional dialects.
Where North Jersey Ends and South Jersey Begins
New Jersey Monthly reported in 2008 that a filmmaker used sub or hoagie as one test of the North Jersey and South Jersey divide.
The filmmaker spent ten months on a documentary about the line and traveled to all 21 counties.
He had middle-school math students average all the lines his interviewees drew.
Some people draw the line at Trenton, while others say everything north of Cherry Hill is north.
Others treat the Garden State Parkway span across the Raritan River as the dividing point.
The farther south you live, the farther south you place the line.
So the word on your deli order may hint at where you're from, but the line itself moves with the person drawing it.
The story says much of the difference can be chalked up to whether the New York or Philadelphia media market exerts a stronger influence.
The filmmaker's tests included whether locals root for New York or Philly teams.
Icons such as Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Rutgers football draw statewide pride.
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