A couple of days ago my wife and I went to a new Indian restaurant, and advised the server (a pleasant young woman) that the food has to be extremely mild as we can’t handle spicy-hot. She did a great job of steering us towards the appropriate dishes, and checked on whether it was okay, once we tasted the food. I was surprised that the tip prompts only went to 20%; these days it’s usually 30% or more. She deserved more.
2 Likes
Many British convenience stores are owned by folk of South Asian heritage and are known, insultingly, as “P… shops”.
“Yankee” has different meanings depending on where you are. Outside of the US, it means USians. In the Southern US, it means any northerners. In the NY area, it means New Englanders. In the Boston area, it means upper-class old money families.
3 Likes
I was once at a dinner party where a dumbass who is also a righteous born-again Christian ranted and railed against Muslims (I went to a Muslim high school where I made a lot of lifelong Muslim friends), and then said that the other group he hates is “Pakis”, at which I told him that I’ve had that slur shouted at me on the street. His response was a blank expression. As I said, a dumbass!
2 Likes
I was dating a young lady from Georgia (US). We went to her hometown for a long weekend, planning to spend a day and night at her Dad’s place and similar at her Mom’s place.
She introduced me to her Dad and I stuck my hand out, and said I was pleased to meet him. He just stood there staring at me with my hand out. Finally he said, “You a Yankee, aintcha boy?”. I said, yes, I suppose so.
He said, “Are you a good Yankee or a bad Yankee?”.
I said I wasn’t sure of the difference, and he replied, “A bad Yankee is one that don’t go back where he belongs.”
He never did shake my hand, and he didn’t say another word to me while we were there.
The reception at her Mom’s was 180° - no wonder they divorced all those years back.
6 Likes
Also in Boston, when preceded by “damn” or “f*cking”, it means a baseball team.
6 Likes
Funny. Mom always said a Yankee was a northerner who visited the south. A damn yankee was one who stayed.
6 Likes
I lived in Mississippi 1 ½ years, college age … I knew, beyond any doubt, I didn’t belong there.
3 Likes
I am aware. And still zero relation to “packie” as an abbreviation for package store (I could’ve sworn I even posted a link in the previous conversation that went so well 
).
While it may be easy to mistake it for the other term in a spoken convo (and mind you, context is everything), the difference is quite obvious in written form. I’m not from MA, so I don’t use it ever, and I certainly wouldn’t use it in a conversation where it might be misinterpreted as a racial slur.
3 Likes
Wow. Just wow.
Central MA born checking in here. Yes, “packies” are slang for package store (or more commonly now, the liquor store). I haven’t heard the term being used for years now. It seems to have gone the way of “tonic” for soda.
5 Likes
I’ve only been to Boston a few times, and only worked with a former Bostonian for about 6 months, but it seems common in the local lingo to add “-ie” or “-ey” to things. Southies from South Boston, a statie is a state police officer, Barneys, brownies, roadie (a beer for the road trip), etc. But some of these might also be broader to NE?
2 Likes
That’s a good question! We do have some regional language quirks for sure.
2 Likes
I went to college in Rhode Island and the RI locals used the term also.
2 Likes
A perfect explanation as you narrow down the locale in which the word is used. Although I’d use “Boston Brahmin” for the upper-class old money New Englanders with their affected accents, as Yankees tend towards thriftyness, not a usual trait of the Boston Brahmins.
4 Likes
I heard both when I lived in Boston. Old money there wore off-the shelf suits, frayed button down collars, and drove Chevy beaters.
When I first got to Boston in 1978, it was before the current arrangement of baseball playoff series. The Sox and Yankees were tied evenly in first place. I took the T downtown to my part-time temp job, and it was the Green line past Fenway Park, packed with shouting and cheering fans. Coming home at night, the cars were dead silent, except for one fan who muttered “f*cking Yankees”.
6 Likes
I was thinking the same thing about names for those with old money. Brahmins or WASPs, whereas Yankees are frugal and don’t turn on the heat in the winter and are very hardy. Yes, some overlap…the old money likes to conserve money. Not so much in the last few decades, however, as far as I can tell.
But I’ve only lived in Boston since 1988…
2 Likes
And I arrived a year after you in 1989. But I’ve lived in MA longer (35 years) than NY (9 months?) NJ (25 years), or PA (4 years), so it’s home.
2 Likes
In the upper midwest, it’s often seen as New England, too. Most upper midwesterners don’t necessarily take offense to being called “yankees”: but many of us do not see ourselves as such. Before the yankees moved our way, there were French trappers, before that, many tribes.
1 Like
I think that’s their official name in Milwaukee, too.
