Lingo

[reprintgoddess]

I don't know if this is a New York thing, a Brooklyn thing, or an Italian-American thing. But here are a few words that I say.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

1. Demitasse

2. Stoop

3. Black coffee

4. Johnny Pump

5. Gravy

If I think of any more I'll update this list.

Comments

[witchofthedogs]

1. As in a demitasse cup?

2. We have stoops here... though, if you live in the suburbs and it has a roof, it's a porch.

3. What's unusual about the phrase "black coffee"?

4. Never heard of it.

5. I'm assuming you aren't using this in the way Southerners use this (as in brown or sausage).

[reprintgoddess]

I'm an inpatient person, so I'll tell you what they are now.

1. Espress0 - we call it demitasse because of the cup that is used.

2. yup, that's a stoop

3. we also call espresso black coffee (because we don't add milk to it. only 2 things allowed are sugar and a liquer)

4. fire hydrant

5. we call tomato sauce gravy.

[witchofthedogs]

I kinda thought that was what you meant by gravy. I've heard people say that, but being of English/Scotch origin, gravy to me is the stuff made from drippings in the pan. *g*

I dunno if we have anything down here... we're so close to Philadelphia, that we have a lot of their lingo. Though, they call sandwiches "hoagies" and we call them "subs" (believe me, that's a big thing...)

It's more what we do than what we say that makes Delawarean's stand-out. We call very few roads by their route numbers, but rather their street names. We don't know where to go unless you give directions by landmark ("You go down the Kirkwood Highway to the old Howard Johnsons, which isn't a Howard Johnsons anymore... Bob, what's that place again? Oh yeah, Crossroads. You go down the Kirkwood Highway to the Crossroads and then take a left...").

Strip malls aren't malls but "shopping centers". Malls are fully encased buildings with main entrances and exits.

Once you go over the bridge downstate, life is southern and everyone is a good old boy.

[weesta]

1. No idea
2. Yep - we had one when we lived in Brooklyn. Go sit on the stoop - Let's play stoop ball. *g* Good times.
3. I'm figuring Black Coffee is coffee straight up.
4. Nope
5. Yes, but I didn't know this until after my brother in-law (a "nice I-Talian" as my grandma would say) made "gravy" for dinner recently.

[reprintgoddess]

1 & 3 are espresso. 4 is a fire hydrant.

Don't let my mom hear you say "I-talian." That really riles her up!

[tenaciousmetoo]

I'd say most of it is Brooklyn-Italian. Did not know about 1 & 3, but 2, 4, and 5 are used by friends in and around the area. (Okay, maybe a little Staten Island, too).

[reprintgoddess]

(Okay, maybe a little Staten Island, too).
Didn't you know SI is filled with ex-Brooklynites?