Tag Archives: Boston

People not born in or near Boston often get confused by a native’s accent and although I’ve successfully tamed my Boston accent (for the most part) my word choices are a dead give-away for anyone familiar with what I like to refer to as “Boston SLANGuage”.

The word wicked in recent years (at least in gay circles) conjures up images of a beautiful Broadway musical, but when a Bostonian says the word it has a very different meaning. Wicked, when uttered by a Bostonian (and by the way its said here with a great deal of frequency), is intended as a superlative to stress something. Growing up I probably said something was “Wicked Awesome” a few million times. While it would give my cousins from the mid-Atlantic pause, after a second or two they usually caught on.

People not born in or near Boston often get confused by a native’s accent and although I’ve successfully tamed my Boston accent (for the most part) my word choices are a dead give-away for anyone familiar with what I like to refer to as “Boston SLANGuage”.

If you’re not from the area you most likely would refer to this first image as a “fountain” or possibly “water fountain”. However, you are terribly incorrect in calling this anything but a “bubbler” or if you want to be gauche, bubblah. See the little bubbles of water coming from the bubbler?

Ask anyone in Boston where is the fountain and they will direct you to a water feature in the Boston Public Gardens, Common or maybe on the new Rose Kennedy Greenway. Below, I’ve included a picture my favorite fountain.

The Trevi Fountain in Rome, which could never be confused with a ‘bubbler’

People not born in or near Boston often get confused by a native’s accent and expressions or as I like to refer to it the “Boston SLANGuage”.

If you’re not from the area you may even struggle to say this expression correctly. Don’t be shy, its impossible to over-emphasize the second syllable of “Pissa”. Incidentally, it is also correct to write this as “Pissah” in my book.

If you hear someone say “Wicked Pissa” what they are saying is something is really awesome. For example, watching the Celtics make the Lakers cry uncle in Sunday afternoon’s game this past week was a wicked pissa.

People not born in or near Boston often get confused by a native’s accent and expressions or as I like to refer to it the “Boston SLANGuage”.

For those not from the area, you may think that this t-shirt above means running very fast. That would be understandable, but incorrect. It is actually referring to Red Sox outfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury.

Jacoby Ellsbury