Detroit slang?

[R8RBOB]

My co-worker and I have had this discussion before: Back in the day, whenever someone did something unkind, Detroiters would say, "man, that's bold." In the suburbs, they said "man, that's bogue."

I used the word bold quite a bit back in the 80's [[Man that was bold shit you said to girl!!!) Not aware that suburbanites used the word bogue. That's news to me.

Another slang term I've heard only in Detroit [[again, this is going back to the 70s/80s) is "biting" or "bunning" to denote a copycat. As in, "Battlestar Gallactica is bunning [[or biting) out of Star Wars."

Biting yes, bunning no. [[Why you biting?)

In SW Detroit, people called a fight a "nub." As in, "Hey, Joey and Chico got thrown out of school because they were nubbing in Clark Park."

Grew up on the northwest side. Not familiar with the term. We used the term "throwin' down" when describing a fight

And I don't know if this is a Detroit-only thing, but back in the days, black folks would refer to a quarter [[the coin) as a "case quarter." I never did figure out what that means.

This had to be before my time. I never heard the phrase.

One last thing, also popular among black folks: Stuck up people were referred to as "sa-ditty." I don't know if that's spelled correctly; I've never had occasion to actually write that word down until now!

This takes me back. I remember the "word"

[R8RBOB]

I just thought of a few more:

"Bust a cap in yo ass."

I'm going to severely kick your ass.

"B" you better quit while you are ahead bro. I dare you to say that phrase with a straight face and see what the reaction would be.

[Baselinepunk]

Oh Hell no; I'll pass on that one, Bob. Once that phrase was said in proper context everybody knew the shit was serious, it was going to hit the fan and everyone take cover, mutherfucker. I've only seen that phrase used in proper context once, and while the ending to the story isn't as bad as it should have been, it was pretty damn horrific. Dude was extremely lucky to only spend a couple of months in the hospital and he got the Hell outta town as soon as he was ambulatory IMHO, the smartest thing Dude ever did in his life.

[R8RBOB]

Oh Hell no; I'll pass on that one, Bob. Once that phrase was said in proper context everybody knew the shit was serious, it was going to hit the fan and everyone take cover, mutherfucker. I've only seen that phrase used in proper context once, and while the ending to the story isn't as bad as it should have been, it was pretty damn horrific. Dude was extremely lucky to only spend a couple of months in the hospital and he got the Hell outta town as soon as he was ambulatory IMHO, the smartest thing Dude ever did in his life.

Understood.

For your definition of "I'm going to severely kick your ass." I believe the 80'ish term that you could use is wreck. As in "I'm goin to wreck yo ass"

[ggores]

Understood.

For your definition of "I'm going to severely kick your ass." I believe the 80'ish term that you could use is wreck. As in "I'm goin to wreck yo ass"

Heh heh, we used to say "block sweep", as in "Man, you shouldda seen it! Mo fo did a block sweep on 'im!" Funny.

[grumpyoldlady]

When I was growing up on the east side, a "sheeny man", was the guy who drove through the alley and picked up junk...not a garbage man, but a salvage man. No particular ethnic group...there were "sheeny men" of various nationalities and races. The one that came through our alley the most was caucasian, had no accent of any kind, and didn't have any appearance of a particular ethnic group.....just your average looking older white male.

[lizaanne]

"Jeet?" = Did you eat?
"sammich" = sandwich

[dtowncitylover]

Not sure if this is slang per se, but I've always like that us Metro area residents call everything outside the metro area "outstate". Grand Rapids, Flint, the Thumb, up north, it's all "outstate". It's kinda like everything in France but Paris is "la Province".

[mrfinewine]

One I've heard only in Detroit: "Where do you stay?" where "stay" = "live."

Expanding on "sike"/"psyche": We had a little rhyme that went with it in the mid-'70s in Northwest Detroit: "Psyche your mind, your booty shine."

Another one: Walking with a certain arm-swinging swagger was "pimpin'." Which is pretty comical, considering we were in like fourth grade when this expression was in vogue.

When we played tag, the home base, the tree you could touch and thereby be safe from being tagged, was "gool."

When another kid in the neighborhood wanted you to come outside and play, he'd ring your doorbell and, if your mother answered, say, e.g., "Can Matthew play?"

Pants that were too short were "floods."

[Downrivergal]

Only in Michigan is a sliding door called a "doorwall" We also say "melk" instead of milk and "Cran" instead of crayon.

[princealbert]

When we played tag, the home base, the tree you could touch and thereby be safe from being tagged, was "gool."

When another kid in the neighborhood wanted you to come outside and play, he'd ring your doorbell and, if your mother answered, say, e.g., "Can Matthew play?"

Wow, I haven't thought about that "gool" thing since 1977. Good one. We did that on the Eastside, as well.

When we wanted one of the neighborhood kids to come out and play we would go to their side door and yell their name twice in a sing-songy way: "AL-BERT, AL-BERT". If the name was one syllable, we would make it two: "PAU-AUL, PAU-AUL". That was in the mid- to late '70s near 7 Mile and Harper and Bulduck Park area.

[Tony Codfish]

[[bump ...)

When we wanted one of the neighborhood kids to come out and play we would go to their side door and yell their name twice in a sing-songy way: "AL-BERT, AL-BERT". If the name was one syllable, we would make it two: "PAU-AUL, PAU-AUL". That was in the mid- to late '70s near 7 Mile and Harper and Bulduck Park area.

Yup. We did that too. In the neighborhood of Clark School ... Balfour & Waveny area we'd stand out on the sidewalk and call a friends name til they [[or their mom) would come out.

Slang ...
If you were going to "bring smoke" you were going to start trouble or kick somebody's ass.
And if you were known for it, you were a "bad smoke bringa".

If something was crazy is was "dee dee" ... dinky dau ... not to be confused with dee-dee-mau meaning "get the fuck out".

Later in the late 70's if something was really good some guys [[mostly black guys I knew that lived near the light gaurd armory) would call it their "mellon" ... "dats mah mellon, hell yeah."

Somebody might be "an ugly mug". This might be accompanied by discriptions of how ugly their mama was.

We called guys from the Belgian neighborhood [[like the Warren & Cadieux area) "buffalos" ... not sure why.

A knife was a "messer" ... as in "ah'll cut you with my messer"

In the Italian area [[cacalupo) where I grew up as a little kid, a guy who was a "Johnny Ryan" was a numbers guy or a guy you could place bets with.

[Django]

I heard a new one tonight
a puppy, meaning a single pack of heroin. Im assuming this comes from the slang dogfood which also means heroin.
Boy = heroin, girl = cocaine, but I have no idea how dogfood came about. As I understand Its not widely used though.
The trap = the dopehouse, which a rapper introduced to us from Atlanta.
The spot = dopehouse

You learn all kinds of interesting things in the hood.

If anyone knows the dogfood history Id love to know.

[Django]

@ Tony Codfish, those are some great ones. I love the mellon ref.

Im wondering about Dinky Dau, that sounds like Vietnamese only because I've heard it in the movies.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was brought back by some of our Vets.

[Augustiner]

A knife was a "messer" ... as in "ah'll cut you with my messer"

Must've been a German part of town.

[Don K]

A lot of what we call "Detroit" slang is either regional or more widespread than we realize. While "pop" [[for soda) is often considered Detroit or Michigan, it is a common term throughout this part of the Midwest and is often understood nationally. There are a few terms that are not widely used elsewhere, but hard to say if I'd call them slang. The Halloween call of "Help the Poor" instead of "Trick or Treat" was an old expression we used that I never heard elsewhere; a liquor store or party store was always called a "beer store;" the "Big 3" [[local, but not really true anymore).

Check out this map http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/pop-vs-soda-map
and you'll see that pop dominates the North from the Alleghenies to the Pacific Northwest. Soda has the Northeast, eastern Wisconsin, St Louis, California, Las Vegas, and most of Arizona. Southerners, of course, call everything coke [[I say of course, but I wasn't aware of it until I was on a business trip to Nashville).

Party store, I'd say, is a Michiganism. I never heard it before I moved here in '78, and I've never heard it anyplace else since. In Indiana it's a bottle shop, in New Jersey it's a liquor store, and in Pennsylvania it's a State Store [[since there are no privately-owned liquor stores). By the way, if you're in New Jersey, the sign "Package Goods" means it's a bar that sells cold six packs of beer to go.

Big Three was known among car enthusiasts around the country, I'd say, but it's probably right that the average Joe outside the Detroit area wouldn't know what you're talking about if you mention the Big Three.

One Detroitism that was prevalent here for a while in the late 70's that I never heard before I got here was "boge" [[short for bogus).

[Don K]

Only in Michigan is a sliding door called a "doorwall" We also say "melk" instead of milk and "Cran" instead of crayon.

Yep. Mention a doorwall anyplace else and they'll wonder what you're talking about. In the Boston area it's a slider.

[Don K]

One other thing I'll mention is the habit of adding the word "at" to the end of a sentence referring to location. For example:

Where you at?
Where's he livin' at?

If I hear someone using that kind of phrasing I figure it's pretty certain they're from the Detroit area. It's redundant but endearing.

[Don K]

A coworker and myself had a similar discussion recently. The one term that we agreed on was the word "jew" used a verb used to infer that one got a deal or a lower price from good negotiation.

How much did you "jew" the seller down when you bought the used car.

Anyone else remember this term?

Not unique to Detroit. My Dad used that a lot, and he was born, grew up in, lived his whole life in, and died in New Jersey.

[Don K]

I thought a jitney was a person with a car who makes money by taking people to the grocery store or doctor appointments. Not a taxi, but close. They are under the table type business ventures.

That sounds about right. I think originally jitneys were, mmm, informal transit operations, up to the size of small buses. My Dad would call the Econoline operation that went from South Jersey to the Philly airport the jitney. Never heard it used for a forkllift, though. That might be a Detroitism.

[Hermod]

That sounds about right. I think originally jitneys were, mmm, informal transit operations, up to the size of small buses. My Dad would call the Econoline operation that went from South Jersey to the Philly airport the jitney. Never heard it used for a forkllift, though. That might be a Detroitism.

Forklifts were called "hi-lows"

[Hermod]

@ Tony Codfish, those are some great ones. I love the mellon ref.

Im wondering about Dinky Dau, that sounds like Vietnamese only because I've heard it in the movies.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was brought back by some of our Vets.

Vietnamese "Dien ca dau" meaning "sick in the head" was G.I.ed into "dinky dow" for crazy and brought back to the US. It and "di di mau" for "go away quickly" made a brief appearance in US slang.

[tarkus]

Fina, and i still have no idea what it means

[Homer]

Fina, and i still have no idea what it means

Derived from fixin', I'm fixin to go to the party store. .........becomes , I fina go to da potty sto
So my son tellsme.

[caspermi]

I grew up on the west side and remember back in the 60's, we would chose one kid, the target, and the other kids would push him to the ground and pile on top of him. We would call that a "n- - - - r pile".

Anyone else remember this term?