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Original poster

Are there any regional words which you use and didn’t realise that not everyone else does?

278 replies

FormerCarer · 01/09/2026 17:11

Inspired by a conversation with friends from different areas who assumed that everyone used mardy and mithering. It’s making me question now which words I assume are universal and really aren’t.

OP posts:
golemmings · 11/09/2026 22:52

I've moved around a bit.
I first came across having a 'cob on' in Nottingham but when I used it at home my mum interpreted it as an erection.
I regularly use out with, but outwith Scotland.
I grew up with mardy and mither but I've now moved to somewhere that people are moithered.
People here can be tamping (angry), chopsy (gobby) and do things 'now in a minute ' rather than now or in a minute.
I had a fabulous evening in London teaching German friends Yorkshire expressions. When I got a lot of unwanted attention from a random bloke by lovely German friend approached him to ask 'who vattled your cage?'

golemmings · 11/09/2026 23:09

keepincool · 01/09/2026 19:47

I'm not from the Black Country, but i absolutely love 'Bostin' I hear it in a brummie accent.

I'm a Lancastrian, but I am also nesh, as I found out on a Christmas Eve pub crawl in Sheffield

My cat is a bit of a mardy bum

When I lived in Burnley people used the word "agait", which i haven't heard since I lived there. I think it means 'said' - so 'I said... she said..." would be "am agait... an' she's agait..."

I love local dialect. I'm also from Rochdale and when we were kids we called poos 'bobs'

Edited to add - I've only heard "cob on" in Liverpool, along with "woolly back" (basically any other northerner who isn't a scouser) and lolly-ice instead of ice-lolly, which is just plain wrong.

Edited
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My mum was a woolly back but she was not a pie eater.

golemmings · 11/09/2026 23:16

Boodahh · 01/09/2026 20:55

Dhs family say Herberts meaning naughty boys. They're from South London, and I've met one other person, from the same bit of South London who also would say Herbert.

No idea if this is a South London phrase, or a London phrase, or just me that had not heard of it.

Mum used 'horrible herbert' as a kind of tolerant term of endearment but she was lancs/surry. Dad was south London but I never heard him use this.

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