Lex
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:43 PM
Original message |
Is saying "crank" your car just a southern thing? |
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Or do people in other places say it too?
(I'm assuming it is a hold-over term from when you had to actually get out and crank your car engine in the front.)
My housemate insists that only southerners use the term.
:shrug:
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xray s
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:45 PM
Response to Original message |
1. we say it up here in Chicago |
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"I was cranking the car for 10 minutes and the damn thing just wouldn't turn over"
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Lex
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:48 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
3. Aha! So not just a regional thing! |
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I knew it!
In fact, I think I've heard characters on TV say it, so I *knew* it couldn't just be a southernism--of course we HAVE plenty of those, but just not THIS one.
Thanks! :hi:
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barb162
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:16 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
18. lived in Chicago my entire life; never heard it |
xray s
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:17 AM
Response to Reply #18 |
19. northside or southside? |
barb162
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #19 |
23. both, born N. side; lived on s and n sides |
xray s
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:47 AM
Response to Reply #23 |
25. In Portage Park, in the winter, we crank the motor till she starts |
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sometimes you crank it too long and you kill the battery. Then you get a jump and wait for a while, until the guy helping you says "try cranking it now"
:)
So...given your checkered pedigree...is it Cubs or Sox?
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barb162
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Wed Dec-29-04 07:03 PM
Response to Reply #25 |
33. Sox more than the Cubs, but I don't really follow either team |
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as I have a low pain threshhold
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BigMcLargehuge
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:45 PM
Response to Original message |
2. we sometimes say it in NH |
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usually the old yankees use the term
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Lex
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:50 PM
Response to Reply #2 |
4. I think it's falling out of the language here |
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in the South too, although you still hear it.
Have you ever heard anyone say "cut" the lights out? People say that ALL the time here (in NC).
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mitchum
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:53 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
9. My wife says my use of "cut" is the only indicator that I'm southern |
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well, that and those "incidents" at family reunions :)
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Lex
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:56 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
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"Cut" the lights off.
"Cut" the TV on.
"Cut" the music down.
Where the hell did that come from anyway? (The "crank" origin is pretty easy to figure out.)
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mitchum
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #12 |
24. I honestly don't know... |
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"cut" was always used around me, and it was never a media recognised indicator of "southerness", so it was a really long time before I realized that it was a regionalism. Just sounded natural.
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CO Liberal
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:51 AM
Response to Reply #12 |
26. My Second Wife Was From Pennsylvania |
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She used to say to "outen" the lights.
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Lex
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Wed Dec-29-04 01:02 AM
Response to Reply #26 |
27. Hmmm . . . we definitely don't have that in the south |
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as far as I know.
But "outen" gets the point across, I suppose.
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CO Liberal
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Wed Dec-29-04 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #27 |
30. Some of Her Other Expressions Made Less Sense |
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Before a meal if there were things on the table, she would say to "red off" the table.
If company was coming, she would say to "red up" the living room.
After a meal, dirty dishes were put in "the spigot" (meaning the sink).
And if someone drank the last cup of coffee in the pot, she would say "the coffee is all".
:shrug:
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Maddy McCall
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:04 AM
Response to Reply #9 |
16. I say "fixing to" all the time. |
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I've tried to lose that, but I just can't.
Do you draw the bath water, too? :-)
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Kathy in Cambridge
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:24 AM
Response to Reply #16 |
21. We draw baths in New England too! |
mitchum
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:27 AM
Response to Reply #16 |
Tom Yossarian Joad
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #2 |
13. Ahhhhhhhh..... You're from NH..... How long have people from NH |
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had this poop fixation? (In my best Freud voice)
:toast:
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Kathy in Cambridge
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:23 AM
Response to Reply #2 |
20. You NH people are WEEEYID |
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I have never heard the term crank referring to a car in my life-I immediately think crystal meth!
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qnr
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:50 PM
Response to Original message |
5. Not particularly popular, but it is used in a lot of places n/t |
mitchum
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:51 PM
Response to Original message |
6. And doing a lot of crank is no longer just a southern thing :) |
blackcat77
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:51 PM
Response to Original message |
7. It's "turn over" in Indiana... nt |
Maddy McCall
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:51 PM
Response to Original message |
8. I live in Mississippi. We "start" the car. We don't "crank" it. |
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I've heard it before, but very rarely. My depression-era father "starts" the car, so I don't think it's generational.
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Lex
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:54 PM
Response to Reply #8 |
10. Cars used to be "cranked" |
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in the front, so at some point probably most people said that.
I hear it in NC frequently, and have heard it in most places in the south.
Maybe Mississippi is the exception.
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Maddy McCall
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Tue Dec-28-04 11:55 PM
Response to Reply #10 |
11. I know that. But I don't hear people say it here. |
ladjf
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Wed Dec-29-04 09:21 AM
Response to Reply #10 |
29. I'm from Mississippi. I've heard it both ways. Another word "yonder" |
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is used mostly in the South, as in "It's over yonder". When I went to school in Michigan I found that they were totally unfamiliar with "yonder".
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Lex
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #29 |
32. Yeah, I figured it must be in Mississippi too. |
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No "yonder" in Michigan? That's too bad!
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hickman1937
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:03 AM
Response to Original message |
14. We say it all the time in the Metro Detroit area |
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Crank it over(turn the key in the ignition) Crank it up(start the car) cranky bastard(guy in the car)
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norml
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:04 AM
Response to Original message |
15. Nebraskans say, Crank it! Crank it up! Crank that engine! Get it cranking! |
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I cranked that engine till the battery went dead, and it still wouldn't start.
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gizmo1979
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Wed Dec-29-04 12:05 AM
Response to Original message |
17. WI. never heard of it. |
guitar man
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Wed Dec-29-04 01:41 AM
Response to Original message |
28. yeah, but there is an "i" in it |
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down south. Up north, it's "crank" the car, down south, it's "craink" the car. :)
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short bus president
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Wed Dec-29-04 10:37 AM
Response to Original message |
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"It won't crank" (or the archaic "she won't crank") is universally understood in service stations around the country, if not around the world.
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HawkerHurricane
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Wed Dec-29-04 07:28 PM
Response to Original message |
34. Heard it here in SoCal... |
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but San Diego is so full of people from so many places, nothing here is 'regional'.
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