Now this is the kind of academic research I can get behind.
It's a map that shows the generic name for "soft drink" in different parts of the country. The Midwest is big on "pop." The Northeast likes "soda." My cousins in Texas always said "sody water." (They always drank Dr Pepper.)
In the Carolinas, what I hear most often is "drink." (That also comes up big in the informal N.C. poll.) But in Georgia, where I grew up -- and where Coke was invented -- we call everything "Coke."
This makes for some strange conversations if you don't know the lingo. Here's a typical moment from my house when I was growing up:
"I'm going to the store."
"Could you get me a Coke?"
"Sure. What kind of Coke you want?"
"Sprite."
So what do they call soft drinks where you come from? What do you hear down here? And what's the weirdest term you've heard?
Comments, debate, and references to "bellywashers" below.
Monday, June 05, 2006
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14 comments:
In Illinois, we called it 'pop.' After I moved down to Charlotte, I told co-workers I was going to go get a pop and they laughed for about 10 minutes. I say 'soft drink' now.
I'm a native Rhode Islander, lived most of my adult life in and around Boston, then came to Charlotte. We grew up calling it "soda", but in MA it is also known as "tonic." Some other quirky things: in RI a water fountain is a "bubbler"...people here laugh at me for that one...my kids even laugh! A milk shake is a "cabinet" in RI, but a "frappe" in MA. A submarine sandwich is a "sub" in RI, but a "grinder" in MA (also known as a "hero" or a "hoagie", depending on where you're from), in RI you have "macaroni with meatballs and gravy" for dinner, not "pasta with meatballs and sauce". Imagaine my surprise when someone finally told me gravy is brown! A clam is a "quohog." Quirkiest thing: in RI, there is actually a company that manufactures coffee flavored syrup...coffee milk is the official "state drink!"
The debate about soda, pop or coke is easy as everyone knows basically what they are. But when one moves to NC and hears "cut on the lights" or "plug up the lamp" it is a whole different story. Cut means to sever - how does one cut something on. And a plug goes in and out - not up and down?????
We always called them "soft drinks" growing up in Hickory, NC. I never thought about it until I moved away in college and everyone thought it was so strange. I guess it's soft compared to harder (alcohol) drinks.
I don't know what Carolinians they asked, but growing up here with family in SC everyone called it Coke. Of course we drank a lot of Cheerwine and Blenheims.
To Quohog-girl - I remember reading in a book that Rhode Islanders and only Rhode Islanders drink milk with coffee syrup. Can't even imagine what that would taste like.
It's a soft drink. Unless I'm too lazy to say two words, and then it's a drink. Unless it's brown, and then it's a Coke. I'm always amused when I order a Diet Coke in a fast-food place and the person asks apologetically, "Is Pepsi OK?" I'll say, "Sure, whatever, just give me Diet Brown," and then they look confused. It's a Coke, I don't care what brand it is, it's all Coke to me!
Native North Carolinian
In response to the Native North Carolinian in the previous message, I am just the opposite - I like Coke but do not particularly like Pepsi. I get very annoyed at a restaurant when I say "Do you have Coke?", and they say yes and then bring me a Pepsi. If I don't see it on the menu, I ask specifically because if they serve Pepsi, I'll order something else.
My first Southern phrase and still my favorite is "I'm own" When a friend of mine would get mad at her husband she says: "I'm own smack you!" haha! The other weird one is 'everwho' i almost fell over on that one. "Everwho took out the milk better put it back up!"
I'm from Pittsburgh and we called it pop. But I went to visit relatives in Connecticut and they said "your mom gave us .50 for sodas". I thought we were getting cheap ice cream sodas and it turned out to be Coke. I still get laughed at here when I say "gumband" for rubber band.
I grew up in Atlanta during the seventies and we always called it Coke or Coca-Cola and many a teenage girl at my school was known to drink a Coca-Cola for breakfast (and this was before Diet Coke). Pepsi is absolutely not in the same classification. Since I am a Carolinian now, I have come to embrace Cheerwine most lovingly, too.
When I moved to Char from Pittsburgh in '79, I asked my next-door neighbor boy if they would like some pop. From then on, when he wanted to tease me, he would say in his mock Pgh. accent,"Hey you guys, do you want some pop?" I can't tell you how many times I heard that phrase through the years. To this day when I think of that man(boy), I think of him saying that phrase to me.
i'm from dallas, texas and have never, ever heard anyone say "sody water." that's ridiculous. When i was a kid, it was all "coke" like you said in georgia.
I now just say "soda."
We also did the peanuts-in-the-bottle thing, but only with Dr Pepper.
Dr Pepper was a big texas thing. we would think it was funny to travel to other parts of the US and not find it. these days I'm even able to buy diet DP in London.
In southeast Georgia, I most commonly heard "co-cola" or if you were really in the backwoods "co-coler."
Once when traveling in Washington state with a friend, he ordered a "co-cola" at dinner. The waitress asked him again what he wanted and still left with a bewildered look. He ended up getting hot chocolate (i.e., cocoa).
I've heard "pop" many times in the midwest, but to borrow a line from Lewis Grizzard, the only use of the word pop in a sentence that is referring to a soft drink is something like..."If you don't hurry up with that 'co-cola' I'm gonna pop you upside the head with this ashtray."
Around 1970 my family spent four years in Baton, a small community between Lenoir and Hickory, where we got used to all sorts of unique turns of phrase. If they wanted you to flick a lightswitch, it was "mash that button" (pronounced "maish at butt'n"); someone playing hooky was referred to as "laying out of school." But my all-time favorite was a family who ended visits with this exchange: "Well, y'all come with us." "Well, y'all just stay."
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