Today, I’m introducing a new feature here on thedangyankee.com. As you may know, Jeff Foxworthy has done a fine job of collecting and cataloguing terms that are unique to the Southern dialect in his Redneck Dictionary. It occurred to me that Yankees have a rich vocabulary of their own, yet no one has has taken the time to assemble these words into a single collection. And so, as a public service, I have decided to take it upon myself to do this.
It is a monumental task to create such a reference, and so I will do it in the same way that the World’s Largest Rubber Band Ball, located in San Francisco, was built; that is, a little bit at a time.
For starters, let’s take the word chauffeur. This is a Wall Street term, usually used to describe an investment gone sour, as in the following sentence:
The venture capitalist invested millions in the dot com bubble, and now he has nothing to chauffeur it.
Took me a moment, former Yankee that I am. (Show fer) Funny.
I understand, Sharon. Once you’ve been away from Yankee Land for a while you kind of lose the dialect. That’s why having a reference like the Yankee Dictionary is so important!