Ayuh! 50 New England sayings & slang, explained

Speak like a New Englandah! This glossary of 50 New England sayings and slang words will help.

Technically speaking, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut all fall under the definition of New England. And while we share some of the same slang, the meanings can vary from state to state and sometimes neighborhood to neighborhood.

Here are 50 examples of how we say things up our way.

Geographic labels 

Flatlander (flandlandah)

Visitors from outside New England’s hilly states like Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Peppers take over New England roads in the autumn. (Roberto Nickson/Unsplash)

Peepers (peephas)

Short for leaf peepers, the hordes of out-of-staters rushing to our region in the fall to take in the foliage from a moving car.

From Away

A term primarily used by Mainers to describe non-native residents. As in, “Brian moved to Kittery from New Hampshire 10 years ago. He’s from away.”

Cow Hampshire

A derogatory term for the Granite State implying we’re a bunch of “fahmahz.”

There are about 10,000 cows in New Hampshire, but calling the Granite State Cow Hampshire is no compliment. (Stacy Milbouer)

Mass*ole

This is now in the Oxford English Dictionary, so I guess we can say it here. It’s a derogatory term for residents of the Bay State, often used when their driving seems erratic to New Hampshire residents.

Places

Camp

This word can describe anything from a shack in the woods, a quaint cottage on a river, a mobile home near the mountains, or a McMansion on a lake. It’s a vacation house that’s at least 30 miles away from home.

The Kanc

Granite Staters’ pet name for the beloved Kancamagus Highway.

An aerial shot of Kancamagus Highway (aka The Kanc) in New Hampshire during peak foliage season. (Jonathan Ng/Unsplash)

Manchvegas

This term for Manchester, New Hampshire began as irony in the 1980s when the city was down on its luck and there wasn’t much to offer in the way of legal fun things to do. The name stuck, even as the city’s offerings improved.

Southie

South Boston

Corner (Cornah) Store

a bodega or convenience store that may or may not be situated at a corner. 

Packy or Packie

This is short for package store, which is what liquor stores are called in Massachusetts and parts of its bordering states. And no, it’s not because people were hiding their liquor in paper bags and packages. It dates back to the turn of the 20th century when entrepreneurs found loopholes in liquor laws that allowed for the sale of booze if it was in its original package when sold by a wholesaler and then to customers. 

They’re not liquor stores here. They’re packies, short for package stores. (Stacy Milbouer)

Little Rhody

Rhode Island.

Gool

This word, mostly used in Massachusetts, is the safe area in children’s games like Olly Olly Oxen Free and Tag. It’s believed that “gool” comes from the word “goal.”

The Cape

It’s a dead giveaway you’re from away if you call this summer haven “Cape Cod.” 

Dunks

What was Dunkin’ Donuts and is now just Dunkins.’ But nobody from here will call it anything but Dunks. We should know. The first Dunks opened in Quincy, Massachusetts, 75 years ago. 

Down Cellar (Cellah)

In the cellar or basement, as in, “I can’t hear you, Ma. I’m down cellah!”

Down East

This term refers to a specific part of mid-coast Maine. It comes from the nautical term describing the direction sailing ships traveled to get from Maine to Boston—downwind and to the east. 

Food and drink

Spukie (spukee)

A submarine sandwich in South Boston, from the Italian word “spucadella,” meaning a long roll.

Grinder (grindah)

A submarine sandwich in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of New Hampshire. The jury is out on the roots of this term—some think it’s because the Italian rolls they came on were so thick you had to grind them with your teeth. Others believe they were named after Italian-American dockworkers who were called grinders.

We have so many words for submarine sandwiches. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of New Hampshire, it’s a grinder. (Eaters Collective/Unsplash)

Italian Sandwich

A submarine sandwich in Maine.

Hamburg

Nope—not the city in Germany. It’s what they call ground beef in New Hampshire.

Jimmies

Sprinkles on ice cream in most of New England.

Scrod

This might sound like a species of fish, but it’s not. It’s a catch-all, New England term for a small whitefish of the day, like haddock, halibut, pollack, or cod.  

Technically, this is not a species of fish. It’s our term for the white fish of the day. (Stacy Milbouer)

Milkshake

Just milk mixed with flavored syrup then blended in Northern New England.

Cabinets

A Rhode Island drink made with ice cream, coffee syrup, and milk. There are wide theories about how this beverage got its name from where the milkshake machine was stored to where the soda jerk kept the coffee syrup.

Frappe

A frappe is a cold drink made with blended ice cream in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Never, ever call it a frappé.

A frappe is a cold drink made with blended ice cream in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Don’t get it confused with a milkshake or a thick shake. (Stacy Milbouer)

American Chop Suey

A dish made with ground beef, tomato sauce, and macaroni served in school cafeterias all over New England. The chop-suey part of the name references the Chinese/American dish derived from the Chinese dish “tsap seui,” meaning sundry leftovers. But why it’s American, we don’t know.

Tonic

Rather than something you take for indigestion, this is an old New Hampshire term for soda.

Things

Blinker (blinkah)

Your vehicle’s turn signal.

Clickah

A remote control.

If you want your sistah to hand you the remote control. Ask for the clickah. (Erik McLean/Unsplash)

Bubbler (Bubblah)

A drinking fountain. This New England term goes way back to the late 19th century and refers to the water “bubbling” up from the spout. In fact, “Bubbler” was a brand name for a fountain made by the Kohler Company in 1888.

Carriage

This is the thing you push around a grocery store. It’s seldom, if ever, called a shopping cart.

Elastic

In these parts, this refers to a rubber band and/or a hair tie.

Beater (Beatah)

This is your favorite and likely first old “cah,” as in, “I’m driving the beatah up to camp this summer.”

Yankee Swap

This is a torturous New England holiday tradition in which players pick numbers from a hat to determine they pick a wrapped gift and then swap it out for something better. Don’t be surprised if your mother-in-law can steal the bottle of Napoleon Brandy you owned for all of two minutes, and you go home with a crocheted dish towel. For a full list of the very arcane set of rules, go to yankeeswap.com.

Frost Heave

Even if you never knew its name, you probably felt its wrath if driving down New England roads this time of year. These erratic bumps in the road occur in late winter and early spring when ice swells up through the soil during a freezing spell, causing portions of roadways to lift and create bumps.

Mud Season

The season we’re about to enter. It’s not quite winter, and it’s not quite spring. The snow and ice are gone, replaced by puddles of thick mud that just love to engulf your shoes.

Rotaries

These are roundabouts that inexplicably appear in the middle of a roadway and mainly cause confusion and accidents for drivers. 

Adjectives

Cunnin’

Cute.

Dinky

That doesn’t mean small here. It’s kind of a dirty word for something that’s not great.

Legless

Very, very drunk.

Wicked

It sounds like a New England stereotype, but it isn’t. We really do say this all the time.

Wicked pissah

A derivation of the above meaning a really, really fun person or event. As in, “That pahty was a wicked pissah!”

Staties

State police. You better not run into them after a wicked pissah pahty.

Phrases

I saw them up at (fill in location here)

As in, “Oh yeah. I saw the Beatles up Boston Gahden in 1964.”

It’s just down the road

It’s at least a half hour away. 

Bangin’ a U-ey

Making a U-turn. 

So don’t I

This means, “so do I.” Don’t try to make grammatical sense out of this. It’s just a thing here. If someone says to their Aunt Dawn, (Ahnt Don) “I have a craving for a grindah” and Aunt Dawn replies, “So don’t I,” that means she’s also jonesing for a meatball sub.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.