9 Things Hoosiers Say That Confuse Everyone From Out of State
Say ‘tree plot’ in Indiana, and your neighbor knows what you mean.
An out-of-stater probably doesn’t.
These are the things Hoosiers say that confuse the rest of America.
1. Pitch-In
If someone invites you to a pitch-in dinner, you’re headed to a potluck.
The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) labels the phrase chiefly Indiana, with Montana also listed.
Carry-in is another name for the meal, which DARE labels chiefly Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
DARE also lists basket dinner for the same meal, chiefly in the Midland and occasionally in the South.
2. Tree Plot
Ever heard someone mention a tree plot near your sidewalk?
It’s the strip of grass between your sidewalk and the street, and DARE labels the term especially Indiana.
DARE lists boulevard for that strip, chiefly in the Upper Midwest and North Central states, and tax strip for Ohio and Indiana.
3. Hoosier
If you’re from Indiana, you’re a Hoosier.
If you want the word’s origin, you’re out of luck, according to the Indiana Historical Bureau, which says it’s unlikely anyone will ever know for sure.
Jacob Piatt Dunn’s 1907 study pointed to a Southern slang term for uncouth countrymen.
John Finley’s 1833 poem cast a Hoosier as an industrious farmer.
The Hoosier Origin Stories
The Indiana Historical Bureau calls the popular Hoosier origin stories below almost certainly apocryphal.
One says skilled frontier fighters were called hushers because they could quell their opponents into silence.
Another has travelers calling out “Who’s here?” at lone cabins, until the phrase wore down to “Hoosier.”
A third, credited to poet James Whitcomb Riley, has a barkeep push a stray ear aside after a tavern fight with a careless “Who’s ear?”
4. The Region
A 2018 Indiana Daily Student feature on Region natives defines the Region as northwest Indiana, right outside of Chicago.
The same feature names Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Indiana’s Economic Growth Region 1 spans seven counties: Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski and Starke.
You’ll notice the state list adds Jasper, Newton, Pulaski and Starke.
Region 1 borders Lake Michigan and Illinois.
5. Naptown
Naptown is a nickname for Indianapolis.
The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis calls the origin of the name uncertain.
Indianapolis Monthly traces the earliest reference it found to a 1927 article in the Indianapolis Recorder about jazz musicians.
The magazine adds that Black performers and musicians began referring to Indy as Naptown, and that soldiers stationed in the city adopted the name.
The magazine also points to the fourth, most prominent syllable you hear in Indianapolis.
6. Tenderloin
If you order a Hoosier tenderloin, you get a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet on a bun.
One diner in a public radio report says the cutlet is so much bigger than the bun.
The report says the pork is sliced, run through a cuber, and breaded in cracker crumbs before it’s deep-fried.
The report also says Nick’s Kitchen is often referred to as the birthplace of the Hoosier tenderloin.
7. Hoosier Hysteria
When you hear Hoosier Hysteria, the phrase is about the state’s passion for basketball.
Indiana Public Media says it reached a fever pitch in 1954, when the team from tiny Milan beat Muncie Central.
8. Circle City
If you wonder why Indianapolis is called Circle City, the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis says the name almost certainly came from the city’s circular design.
Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham platted and mapped the town in the spring of 1821, the encyclopedia adds.
It dates the completion of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument to 1902.
9. Town Names From Abroad
If you pass through Indiana, you’ll find towns named Milan and Versailles.
Some out-of-staters say them the way they sound in Europe.
Indianapolis Monthly spells the local sound of Milan as “Mile-an.”
An Indiana University linguistics lecturer, Ann Bunger, told the magazine that locals base Americanized pronunciations of town names on the spelling of the words.
For Versailles, the magazine guesses that residents didn’t want to waste letters that stay silent in the French “ver-SIGH.”
Psst! How much do you know about Indiana’s history and state symbols? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Indiana Trivia Test
Answer these questions on Indiana’s history and state symbols. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
How many years before the state flag was Indiana’s state song adopted?
Where the Dialects Meet
Phillip Weirich's 2019 dissertation gives Inland North, North, Midland and South as the regional dialects Indiana sits among.
It rests on a survey of 163 people and a draw-a-map task with 68 participants.
The study found participants identified dialects somewhat accurately, at 30% where chance was 25%.
That's a narrow margin.
Participants could tell Southern speech from non-Southern speech, the dissertation found.
Where they lived in Indiana changed their answers only slightly, according to the same study.
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Some have been going for generations, and many Hoosiers plan their autumn weekends around them.
5 Indiana Small-Town Traditions That Still Run Every Fall Like It's 1975
5 Ways the Ohio River Divides Indiana and Kentucky
You're on vacation halfway across the Ohio River, and nothing outside your window has changed.
The water looks the same, and so does the sky.
