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I am visiting SC for awhile and would like to learn the slang down here. I had no idea what to do when someone told me to "cut the light". Where I come from we say "turn off the light" So please fill me in on the southern talk here!
It's hard to pinpoint southern slang, because I don't know if other people use these words or not.
I've heard "cut the lights" and "cut out the light", but never just "Cut the light". I don't know why, but the first two sound normal and the last one sounds weird.. lol
You might hear someone say "over yonder". Similar to the word 'there', it's a term that refers to a specific place, that is not here. As in, "Go get those fishin poles from over yonder". The word "rather" is used very often, to mean "somewhat": "It's rather hot out."
Shopping carts are buggies, all forms of soda or pop is known as "Coke", and if you're "Fixing to.." that means you are about to do something. A "pack of nabs" is one of those 6-pack of crackers, and a "filling station" is a gas station.
"Y'all" is the most efficient word in the english language, and should always be used in place of the plural version of "You", or "You guys". "A spell" is a temporary, but undefined time period. "He was sick for a spell."
"Like to" can sometimes mean "almost". "I like to smash my fingers with the hammer yesterday". This one can be confusing, but when it's spoken it sounds like: "Ida-liketa smash my fingers.."
When you get drunk, you got "tore up".
That's all I can think of right now, but that oughta get you started!
I've lived here for about 5 years, transplanting from Va. The one slang they use here that took me awhile to get used to was the usage of the word 'ill'. For example, "I'm just ill", or "That makes me so ill", or "He/she made me ill" really means that they are mad or upset. Another slang they use for law enforcement is 'Po-lice, instead of 'police'. They draw out the 'o' sound, which is very foreign to my ears. Hope this helps!
A case quarter was hard for me to get use to and I am from Tn. A case quarter is a coin quarter, not 2 dimes and a nickel. a cheer is a chair, instead of pass the ketcup its let me hold the ketcup. I'm worn slap out is I am tired. Not everyone talks like that but my husband does
Y'all-plural of you
not studyin' about-not thinking about
fixin' to-preparing to--as in "I'm fixin' to fix lunch")
The University-University of SC
jack slap-an especially hard whack
hey momto1,
instead of "thank you y'all" we say "thank y'all " the y is representative of "you" just getting you trained, some of these posts have listed things that I thought were regular and not slang, but I guess it's not everywhere, I'm still learning.
Hey thank you for the correction!!!! May get this right before I leave!
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