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Speak Like a Local
Wicked useful words for reading menus, following directions and holding your own in a sports bar.
Bostonians are easy to understand once you know their shorthand for places, food and everyday things. Here is a starter vocabulary. Use it with a smile; nobody expects you to drop your R’s.
Places
the Hub
Boston itself, after Oliver Wendell Holmes’s 1858 quip that the State House was the hub of the solar system. Headline writers still love it.
Beantown
A nickname heard from visitors and national sportscasters. Locals never say it, and wince when you do.
the Common
Boston Common, the big green park where the Freedom Trail begins. It is singular: never “the Commons.” ›
the Garden
TD Garden, the arena above North Station where the Bruins and Celtics play. Older fans may mean its predecessor, the Boston Garden. ›
the Pru
The Prudential Tower and the shopping center at its base in Back Bay, linked by an indoor walkway to Copley Place. ›
Southie
South Boston, the waterfront neighborhood of beaches, Castle Island and a famous St. Patrick’s Day parade. Not to be confused with the South End. ›
Eastie
East Boston, across the harbor from downtown, home to Logan Airport, a lively Latin American food scene and big skyline views. ›
JP
Jamaica Plain, the leafy neighborhood around Jamaica Pond and the Arnold Arboretum, with a busy main street on Centre Street. ›
Dot
Dorchester, Boston’s largest neighborhood, a patchwork of village squares and triple-deckers strung along Dot Ave and the Red Line. ›
the Cape
Cape Cod, and you go down the Cape, never to it, whatever the map says about direction. Down the Cape is where half the city is on a July Friday afternoon, which is why the bridges jam.
Rozzie
Roslindale, the neighborhood just south of JP, prized for the small-town feel of Roslindale Village and its walkable square. ›
Townie
A Charlestown native, usually from a family rooted there for generations. Elsewhere it can simply mean any longtime local. ›
triple-decker
A three-story wooden house with one apartment per floor, often with stacked porches out front. Classic working-family housing of a century ago.
Allston Christmas
September 1, when Allston’s leases turn over all at once and the curbs fill with free furniture. The pickings are good; so are the bedbugs.
Getting around
the T
The MBTA’s subway, buses, trolleys and ferries, and the one-letter name locals use for all of it. ›
Comm Ave
Commonwealth Avenue, the grand Back Bay boulevard with a tree-lined mall down the middle, continuing west past Boston University to Brighton. ›
Mass Ave
Massachusetts Avenue, the long spine through the South End and Back Bay that crosses the Charles and runs past MIT and Harvard.
the Pike
The Massachusetts Turnpike, I-90, the toll highway running from the New York line into downtown Boston and on to Logan.
the Expressway
The Southeast Expressway, I-93 from downtown south to Braintree. Nobody says I-93; the traffic report says the Expressway is jammed, and it is.
rotary
A traffic circle. The law gives the right of way to cars already in the circle; the circle itself gives it to whoever commits first. Wait for a gap, then go.
bang a U-ey
Make a U-turn, usually after missing a turn. Plenty of Boston streets post against it, which has never stopped anyone.
Storrowing
Wedging a truck under one of Storrow Drive’s low bridges. It happens every September move-in, even though trucks are banned there.
Statie
A Massachusetts State Police trooper, the ones patrolling the Pike and the highways. One in the mirror slows traffic right down.
Food and drink
Dunks
Dunkin’, the coffee-and-doughnut chain born in nearby Quincy in 1950. Nearly everyone orders it iced, in January too.
regular
At Dunks, a regular is coffee with cream and sugar, not a size. Say it and the line moves.
Hoodsie
A 3-ounce paper cup of ice cream, half chocolate and half vanilla, made by Hood since 1947 and eaten with a flat wooden spoon at every New England school party; still sold by the sleeve.
grinder
A sub sandwich, at the kind of pizza-and-sub shop that still prints the word on its awning. Said “grinda.”
spa
A corner store, often with a lunch counter, in the older neighborhoods. The word lives on in shop signs more than in young mouths; the stores are worth a stop either way.
carriage
A shopping cart. Ask where the carriages are and nobody will blink.
packie
A liquor store, short for package store, the term Massachusetts licensing rules still use.
bubbler
A drinking fountain, the kind you find in parks, schools and the occasional museum hallway.
jimmies
Sprinkles on ice cream, traditionally the chocolate kind. Ask for them on a cone and you will sound like you grew up here.
frappe
A milkshake made with ice cream, usually said “frap.” At an old-school counter, a plain milkshake may come without the ice cream.
tonic
An older New England word for any soda, still heard from longtime locals. Ask for a tonic and you may get a cola.
Everyday talk
wicked
Very, as in wicked good or wicked cold. An all-purpose intensifier, not a comment on anyone’s character.
wicked pissah
Excellent. Dated, and said with a wink more often than straight; locals are divided on whether anyone ever meant it.
Masshole
A Massachusetts driver, as named by the rest of New England and adopted here with some pride. Use it about yourself, never about the person who just cut you off.
the Green Monster
Fenway Park’s 37-foot left-field wall, and the seats on top of it, the hardest ticket in the park. ›
all set
Finished, or good to go. When a server asks if you are all set, they want to know whether you need anything else.
elastic
A rubber band. Ask a Bostonian for an elastic and that is what you will get.
nor’easter
A powerful coastal storm with winds from the northeast, bringing heavy snow in winter and soaking rain the rest of the year.
the Sox, the B’s, the C’s, the Pats
The Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics and Patriots. Learn these four and you can follow almost any bar conversation in town. ›