page_title: Western Pennsylvania English
section_title: Vocabulary
hierarchical_section_title: Western Pennsylvania English / Vocabulary
caption_attribution_description: English: City of Pittsburgh Recycling Drop-Off Center sign illustrating an example of Western Pennsylvania English ("Pittsburghese"), using the term "redd-up."
context_page_description: Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly as Pittsburghese, is a dialect of American English native primarily to the western half of Pennsylvania, centered on the city of Pittsburgh, but potentially appearing as far north as Erie County and Limestone, New York, as far east as Sunbury, Pennsylvania, as far west as Youngstown, Ohio, and as far south as Clarksburg, West Virginia. Commonly associated with the white working class of Pittsburgh, users of the dialect are colloquially known as "Yinzers".
context_section_description: babushka - (n.) headscarf
  buggy - (n.) shopping cart
  baby buggy - (n.) baby carriage
  the 'Burgh - (n.) Pittsburgh
  berm - (n.) edge of the road, curb: an accepted alternative to "shoulder of the road"
  carbon oil - (n.) kerosene
  chipped ham - (n.) very thinly sliced chopped ham loaf for sandwiches (from a local brand name) (see chipped chopped ham)
  city chicken - (n.) cubes of pork loin and/or veal on a short wooden skewer, breaded, then fried or baked
  cruds, crudded milk, or cruddled milk - (n.) cottage cheese:
  dippy - (adj.) appropriate for dipping into, such as gravy, coffee, egg yolks, etc.
  doll baby - (n.) complimentary term for an attractively childlike girl or woman (reversal of "baby doll")
  dupa - (n.) parental term for a child's backside of Polish origin.
  grinnie - (n.) chipmunk
  gumband - (n.) rubber band
  gutchies; or undergutchies (n.) term used to describe undergarments of any variety.
  hap - (n.) comfort; or, comforter or quilt:
  hoagie - (n.) a sub (i.e., submarine sandwich; used throughout Pennsylvania)
  jag - (v.) to prick, stab, or jab; to tease (often, jag off or jack around)
  jagger - (n./adj.) any small, sharp-pointed object or implement, usually thorns, spines, and prickles (as in a jagger bush or "I got a jagger in my finger").
  jimmies - (n.) sprinkles
  jumbo - (n.) bologna lunch meat
   
  "Kennywood's open" - idiom used to inform someone that their fly is open ("Kennywood" referring to the Kennywood amusement park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania)
  kolbusy or kolbassi - (n.) variant pronunciation of kielbasa (/kʊlˈbɑːsi/)
  monkey ball - (n.) fruit of the Maclura pomifera or monkey ball tree
  n'at (/ɪˈnæt/ i-NAT) - et cetera; and so on; a "general extender"; literally, a contraction of "and (all) that"
  neb - (v.) to pry into a conversation or argument intrusively or impertinently (this term and its derivatives are common to Pennsylvania, but especially southwestern Pennsylvania, from Scots-Irish)
  neb out -  to mind one's own business
  neb-nose or nebby-nose (also nebshit) - (n.) the kind of person who is always poking into people's affairs
  nebby - (adj.) given to prying into the affairs of others; nosy
  qo - (n.) question
  redd up (also ret, rid, ridd, or redd out) - (v.) to tidy up, clean up, or clean out (a room, house, cupboard, etc.); to clean house, tidy up (hence v bl. redding up house-cleaning; tidying up)
  slippy - (adj.) slippery (from Scots-Irish)
  spicket - (n.) alternate pronunciation of spigot, specifically an outdoor faucet used to connect to a garden hose
  Stillers - (n.) alternate pronunciation of the Pittsburgh Steelers
  tossle cap - (n.) knit hat designed to provide warmth in cold weather
  trick - (n.) a job shift (as used in West-Central Pennsylvania)
  yins, yinz, yunz, you'uns, or youns - (pronoun) plural of you (second-person personal plural pronoun from Scots-Irish)
caption: City of Pittsburgh Recycling Drop-Off Center sign using the term "redd up," illustrating an example of Western Pennsylvania English.
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 4", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Photos 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2012:09:17 16:34:01", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1034", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:09:17 16:34:01", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:09:17 16:34:01", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "11587/1157", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4281/1441", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "9181/1013", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1295, 967, 699, 696]", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1936", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard"}