User:AryamanA/DC regionalisms
Some words I've heard in DC and tried to make sense of.
Slang
[edit]- joan, jone (“to insult, slander; to roast”)
- bamma, bama (“a country bumpkin”) (from Alabama)
- cise, sice (“to excite; to instigate; to exaggerate”)
- ji, jhi, jih (“really, very”)
- jont, joint (“thing, item, object; person, dude”) (seems to be common in Mid-Atlantic)
- mo, moe (“dude, bro”)
- kill (“no way!, woah!; relax!”)
- kirk (“to lose one's temper”) (also kirk out)
- mans (“man, dude”) (in my mans, not sure if DC-specific?)
- Mumbo sauce (“kind of regional condiment”)
- lunch (“to fool around, dawdle”) (doesn't seem that common)
- dip (“to leave discreetly”)
- dap (“giving dap”) (DC people do it in a specific way, it starts like a horizontal high five but then you wrap your fingers with the other persons. I was terrible at this for pretty much the first year of living here (and not very great even now).)
- pressed (“aggravated”) (seems to be a youth thing)
- brick (“long period of time”)
- hip (“in agreement”, adj.)
- I'm hip.
- I agree.
Mainstream yet regional terms
[edit]- the Beltway (“I-495”)
- K Street (“lobbyists, special interest groups”) (used metonymically)
Interesting things
[edit]- Older white people rhotacize? Especially in Northwest. Sort of Boston-ish.
- "Maryland" and "Baltimore" are pronounced very differently from GenAm. Going to transcribe it in IPA one of these days.