555_pinout_small
Reputation: 1090
Moderator
Follow 4
Follow 1

What Seattle lingo do you use?

I'm interested in local nicknames for anything and explanations would be a bonus! Also, extinct ones would be fun.

For example:

Widely used: "The Ave". It's University Way so that makes no sense.

Extinct: "The Versateller" (once the name for ATMs around here).

Personal: We refer to Mail Stop on 14/15th E & Republican as "No, Not, Never" because it used to have signs all over the place telling you what NOT to do.

Or Jamjuree Thai on 15th E we refer to as JimJammy.

I'd love to hear yours.

Charles B asked in Whatever 9 months ago | Report

Answer this question or share it with a smart friend:

Avatar_default
Type your answer here…

Asker's Favorite

  • Wa_usa_small
    Reputation: 2677
    Follow 2
    soundslikepuget

    I have some for the city, but because I spend so much time running around the rest of the state, I've developed a pretty good regional list too. I'll give you my Seattle list first:

    Capitol hill is "The Gayborhood"

    The Central District is "The Seedy"

    First Hill is "Pill Hill"

    Puget Consumer's Co-op (PCC) is "The Hippy Dip"

    Group Health Cooperative is "Group Death"

    Boeing is "The Lazy B"

    That freeway that runs through town? It's "I-5." Pronounced "Eye Five." It is most assuredly NOT "The Five" nor is it "The I-5." Just "I-5" thank you. If you can't handle that, go back to California.

    Union Bay, near Husky Stadium, on Lake Washington is Garbage Bay to sailors and fishermen. Years ago, it was Seattle's garbage dump. Metro cleaned up Lake Washington a long time ago, but the name is still alive among the nautically inclined. In case you didn't know, Metro was created to clean up toxic Lake Washington, they succeeded, and expanded into transit and other areas. (More on that here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=1353) But boaters still call it "Garbage Bay"

    Schools:
    Rainier Beach High School is "Beach."
    Holy Names Academy is "Holy Dames" (all girls)
    O'Dea is "Oh, Gay" (all boys)
    Seattle Pacific University is "Spew"

    EXTINCT: We used to call SeaTac airport "SeaCrap" but It's come a long way, baby. It's now actually a nice airport, so file that one away in the history section.

    EXTINCT: The Seattle Times is "Brand X." So-called by Seattle writer Emmett Watson when he moved to the P-I and wanted to take a jab at his former paper.

    Oh, and please, for the love of everything that is holy, it is PIKE PLACE MARKET. May everyone who ever calls it PIKE'S MARKET choke on a salmon bone and die.

    Outside of the city, around the state:

    To the south, that awful smell in Tacoma is the "Aroma of Tacoma."

    To the east, the Crossroads neighborhood of Bellevue is sometimes called "Immigration Station" due to the vast ethnic diversity in the middle of a lily-white town.

    Also to the east, skiing at Snoqualmie Pass is "Snow-Crumby" because the snow there is terrible. And Alpental is Alpen-Small, for obvious reasons.

    Lake Washington Boulevard on the east side is "The Bully"

    Anacortes is an ancient Native American word that means "Waiting for the Ferry."

    Yakima is Yaki-vegas.

    Ellensburg is Eburg

    Bellingham is Bham
    Bellingham residents are "Hamsters" (Short for Bellinghhamsters)

    Spokane is Spokaloo or Spo-Compton

    Pullman is Pullmanastan

    Port Angeles is PA

    Mt. Rainier is The Mountain

    Olympia is OlyWA

    Wenatchee is Wet-Snatchee (like a vagina)

    Walla Walla is often written "Walla²"

    Highway 2, from Everett through Stevens Pass and onto Spokane and points East is "the Hi-Line" (It follows the old Great Northern Railroad of that name to Minneapolis)

    soundslikepuget answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    6 comments by lilmonster206, Sacrelicious, and Charles B…
    Share this answer with a friend:
Latest Greatest

14 Other Answers

  • Photo_49_small
    Reputation: 306
    Follow 0

    Sunbreak. Coming from New Mexico, I'd never heard the term before moving here.

    Pike Place Market is just "the Market."

    I still call Macy's "the Bon."

    Gitai Ben-Ammi answered in Whatever 8 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Avatar_default
    Reputation: 3
    Follow 0

    Also, Free-lard, for the part of town where Ballard and Fremont meet

    pattypaxton answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Lookalikes_small
    Reputation: 2589
    Follow 2

    Surprised no one mentioned "Ave rats" for the teenagers, often homeless, that hang out all day on University Way.

    Funny, I've lived here my whole life and never heard a lot of these. Oh, and Capitol Hill used to be The Swish Alps when I was younger.

    I still call a hell of a lot of the buildings downtown by their original names - the SeaFirst building, the Rainier Bank tower, the Peoples' Bank building, etc. My mother was in banking, and all her friends worked at the various banks, so I knew where the bank buildings were.

    Fremont's the Republic of Fremont, of course, because of Lenin. And Red Square is not only in Moscow. The Quad only refers to one spot, as does the Duck Pond.

    Geni answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Spiralavatar_small
    Reputation: 131
    Follow 0

    My parents live in Maple Leaf, which I call Little Canada.

    I call Northgate The Ninth Gate.

    I grew up a stone's throw from Aurora, and I lived there for a few years again until earlier this year. People who are from or live on or near Highway 99 are known as Ninety-niners.

    rogitator answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Photo_small
    Reputation: 1254
    Moderator
    Follow 5

    The area where I live around MLK and Cherry is called "Little Ethiopia"

    I've heard Bellevue referred to as "New Jersey"

    There used to be a bar on Pike called "The Brass Connection" which I heard someone refer to as "The Ass Infection".

    The West Seattle Junctions: "The Junction" or "The Admiral Junction" where California Avenue S.W. and S.W. Admiral Way meet, and "The Little Junction" or "Morgan Street Junction" at the southern end where Fauntleroy Way S.W., S.W. Morgan Street, and California Avenue S.W. intersect.

    Nicknames for the original Dick's Drive-ins: White Dick's (Wallingford), Black Dick's (Capitol Hill) and Queen Anne Dick's.

    Marty Unger answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    1 comment by Alias…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Subcultureoftwo_small
    Reputation: 1892
    Follow 4

    Mt. Rainier = The Mountain
    Bothell = Bot-Hell or Brothel
    Spokane = Spokanistan or Spocompton
    SPU = Spew

    Aurora Bridge vs. George Washington Bridge.

    Apparently the area between south Lake Union and downtown used to be called Old Cascade.

    Seattle: The Emerald City, Jet City, the Grey Lady.

    Sacrelicious answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Ava_small
    Reputation: 539
    Follow 0

    Wow no one has mentioned the slut ( south lake union trolly)

    sublevelthree answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Rex_racer_small
    Reputation: 690
    Follow 0
    RacerX

    city -- "jetcity", "the queen city" , "C-Town"

    bldgs & geography--
    "the SHOE" - the old washington shoe bldg and the lofts that used to be there, as in 'I got a rathole of a studio in The SHOE'!
    "THE market" for the pike place market
    "I-5 Shores" newer name for melrose-through-harvard section of west capitol hill, but I like it.
    "sinking ship" - the old PioneerSquare whorehouse-turned-parking garage
    "the old blue note" the area around 23rd and jackson
    "the box the space needle came in" old seafirst tower
    "latona" the original name for the south wallingford/west u-district/gasworks area dominated by the I-5 ship canal bridge now.
    "the bon" macys
    "darth vader's building" which I think now has a red popsicle at its base
    "the mailbox" or "lady shick razor" the century sq bldg on 4th

    folks-
    "Homely Dames academy" sorry, catholic girls
    "ave rat" punk kid in u-district
    "alkies" (for drunk people on west seattle beaches)
    "joe metro" - the bus system
    "the weedle" for the little critter that sits atop the space needle blinking his red nose.

    stuff-
    "clam gun" a curved trench shovel
    "rusting" tanning

    the oldest local nickname is of course "skidrow" (yesler). Though decades ago, nearly the entire pioneer square neighborhood was called that.

    callihan.com/seattle/ has a WONDERFUL list of historic local slang

    RacerX answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    5 comments by Charles B, Charles B, and Geni…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Finn3goof_small
    Reputation: 1811
    Follow 4

    The Jade Pagoda=The Abe Vigoda

    First Hill=Pill Hill

    Ballard=snoose junction

    Crown Hill=Crown Royal Hill

    Denny Regrade (seems to be disappearing)

    Interbay=The Dump

    The counterbalance

    Beacon hill=Bear Hill (very old one)

    the area twix ballard and fremont=Frelard

    The area at the bottom of the northern slope of Queen Anne=Queemont

    Tom answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    2 comments by Finger Games and freikja…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Img_0355_small
    Reputation: 1308
    Follow 1

    Former UW tour guide here - there's actually a good explanation for "The Ave." It used to be 14th Ave, and it was the main shopping street, so students called it "The Ave." There was a contest to rename it in 1919 and "University Way" won, but by then the nickname was pretty well fixed and it's remained that way ever since.

    Emily Steed answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    3 comments by Charles B, Emily Steed, and capicola…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Kermitsex_small
    Reputation: 2421
    Follow 5

    l unofficially call Fremont Little Thailand, obviously for the twenty thousand Thai restaurants in the area.

    freikja answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    Comment on this answer
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Mototour_small
    Reputation: 550
    Follow 0

    We use "Chez Richard" to refer to Dick's Hamburgers.

    Christina L answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    6 comments by freikja, Tracy M, and Charles B…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Honeybadger2_small
    Reputation: 197
    Follow 0

    My family, from Ballard, has always referred to Ballard as Snoose Junction.

    HoneyBadger answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    5 comments by Charles B, freikja, and HoneyBadger…
    Share this answer with a friend:
  • Photo_on_2011-05-23_at_16
    Reputation: 718
    Follow 1

    I refer to people who live on Capitol Hill (myself included) as "Capitol Hillians".
    Also, the hill on the north side of Cal Anderson as "hipster hill".

    lilmonster206 answered in Whatever 9 months ago | Report
    3 comments by freikja, lilmonster206, and freikja…
    Share this answer with a friend: