When I married and moved to Vernal, Utah from Chicago, I noticed not everyone used the same terms as me. So I started questioning myself thinking I was just making suff up. Eventually, I changed some of my terminology so that I wouldn't sound weird or so I wouldn't have to explain myself. So when I got this email it made me realize I wasn't weird. I was just from Chicago.
CHICAGO SLANG 1. Grachki (grach'-key): Chicagoese for 'garage key' as in, Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?'
*I don't know if I've ever heard someone call a garage key a grachki, but it definitely sounds like someone's last name.
2. Sammich: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef, it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun.
*Now and then I'll call it a sammich just for fun, but sausage is definitely pronounced sassage by a lot of people- maybe even me. And see- Italian Beef is real. I didn't make that up either!
3. Jewels: Not family heirlooms or a tender body region, but a popular name for one of the region's dominant grocery store chains. 'I'm goin' to the Jewels to pick up some sassage.
*This is where my mom bought groceries.
5. Field's: Marshall Field, a prominent Chicago department store. Also Carson Pirie Scott, another major department store chain, is simply called Carson 's.
*Generally, I walked through these stores to get to the more teenage affordable stores at the mall.
'6. Tree: The number between two and four. 'We were lucky dat we only got tree inches of snow da udder night.' *True dat.
7. Kaminski Park : The mispronounced name of the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox (da Sox) play baseball. Comiskey Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field (da Cell)
*It's sad that it had to be renamed. Dumb sponsor stuff.
9. Frunchroom: As in, 'Get outta da frunchroom wit dose muddy shoes.' It's not the 'parlor.' It's not the 'living room.' In the land of the bungalow, it's the 'frunchroom,' a named derived, linguists believe, from 'front room.'
*This is a perfect example of Chicagoese. Doesn't this sound like a made up word? I always said frunchroom and then I lived in Utah and wondered if it was a real word. As an adult I finally realized it meant front room. Then I started calling it a front room or living room so people would understand what I meant. I still like the sound of frunchroom better.
10. Use: Not the verb, but the plural pronoun 'you!' 'Where use goin'?'11. Downtown: Anywhere near The Lake, south of The Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo) and north of Soldier Field.
*I kid you not about a year ago I was talking to an aunt and she asked me- how's use guys?
11. Braht: Short for Bratwurst. 'Gimme a braht wit kraut.'
12. Goes: Past or present tense of the verb 'say.' For example, 'Den he goes, 'I like this place'!'
16. Guys: Used when addressing two or more people, regardless of each individual's gender.
*I have gotten wierd looks from my young women when I started by saying, "Hey, guys." Now you know why I say it.
17. Pop: A soft drink. Don't say 'soda' in this town. 'Do ya wanna canna pop?'
*It is pop and no
t soda.18. Sliders: Nickname for hamburgers from White Castle , a popular Midwestern burger chain. 'Dose sliders I had last night gave me da runs.
*Ewww. I have never liked White Castle, but I remember my dad buying like 50 of them once. Pretty sure we ate them all. They're just small hamburgers.
19. Cuppa Too-Tree: is Chicagoese for 'a couple, two, three' which really means 'a few.' For example, 'Hey Mike, dere any beerz left in da cooler over by dere?''Yeh, a cuppa too-tree.
*Matt and I have actually got in an arguement over the definition of couple. He thinks a couple means two- NOT!
20 Junk Dror: You will usually find the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen filled to the brim with miscellaneous, but very important, junk.
*The top drawer of my clothes dresser when I was a kid. Now they're all over. Where is your junk drawer?
21. Gym Shoes: The rest of the country may refer to them as sneakers or running shoes but Chicagoans will always call them gym shoes!
*You mean not everyone calls them gym shoes?
There was more slang, but I just kept the ones that applied to me. Besides, I thought this was getting too lengthy.
5 comments:
SODA. not pop.
This post makes me miss you.
Hehe, I totally pictured you saying some of these. But I have to agree with Matt - a couple means two. Sorry Katrina - Chicago doesn't know what it's talking about!
I would have to disagree with the two post above. But that is due to me being from Chi-town.
Love your comments after the comments. I miss Chi-town too. Especially Italian Beef.
I dont see any problem except that they forgot "true". I got this story from my mom. I dont know where she was trying to get to. When my mom(from Idaho) moved to chicago with my dad he had her looking all over for a street named "true". My dad a cabbie, semi-truck, milk truck driver gave her directions and told her take the true street. She looked all over for it and got frustrated, I think she came home after that. Anyway when she got home she told my dad she could find the street named true, he started laughing and said, "It's not a street named TRUE, it's the THRU street"(or an alley). Pretty funny I think!
That was such a fun post! I have always wanted to go to Chicago (well more than just landing and taking off in a plane). Now if I ever get to go there I will know what in the heck they're trying to say to me! jk hehe
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