Midwestern slang
A helpful guide to those visiting the midwest of America
Since traveling abroad I’ve done heaps of research as to the local vernacular of the people of beautiful Aotearoa, New Zealand. In doing so, I reckoned that there should be similar guides to those who are not from the American Midwest, but chose to be in it anyway.
A quick bit to understand what constitutes the midwest. The midwest is generally considered to be the region of America between the states of Ohio to the Dakotas and above the Mason-Dixon Line. However, in recent years we have added states such as Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska for reasons that are unclear to me, but I will not get into at the time of this writing.
Midwestern culture is, due its farming routes, founded on a rich stoicism and a deep devotion to not bother anyone, even if you’re making a bigger inconvenience for all parties involved.
The Midwest has many wonderful things to offer the visitor such as beautiful hikes, great sky trips, and judgmental glances from people in a Hy-Vee supermarket.
Here are some basic phrases you might want to use on your trips to the great middle America.
Whatever
Whatever means that you want to argue or disagree with someone but don’t want to make a fuss. e.g. “It was this past July not August, but whatever.”
Whatever can also be a simple punctuation statement to indicate that the person has finished talking, but wants to talk more. e.g “So I said to her, it’s not her fault that the pastor forgot to bring up bingo night. Well, whatever.”
Note the subtle difference between, “But whatever” and “Well, whatever.” “But” indicates a bit of judgement whereas “Well” indicates a kind of acceptance that people want to move on.
Ope!
Ope is perhaps the midwest’s most well-known phrase. Ope is used in many situations, but is primarily used as a pseudo-apology and indicator of surprised. e.g. “Ope! I didn’t see you there, let me just squeeze past you.” This phrase is often heard at ice cream socials, church events, baseball games, and even funerals.
Ope can also mean I almost died. e.g. Dale skidded his car into the ditch and said: “Ope! I just about crashed my Buick into that tree back there.” or Jim is walking back to the ice fishing hut and exclaims: “Ope! I just about slipped on the ice and fell into the fishing hole.”
Ope’s final form is that of a pleasant surprise. e.g. Margery is cooking dinner for her husband, Mike. Mike comes up and kisses her cheek without asking, “Ope!” Margery says, blushing.
There
There normally means a location, in Midwestern English it also means “just then” e.g. Dale is backing his car out of his driveway and he hears Mike say, “Well, just ran over my foot there, Dale.” Mike does not mean Dale has driven over his foot in the driveway, he means that he has driven over his foot in the last minute.
There can also be an addendum to enhance a feeling. e.g. Mike says to Dale after losing a game of Kings Corner “I gotta hand it to you, there.” Mike has said this for two reasons: One, There’s a small pun in the use of the word ‘hand’ when playing cards. Two, Mike is resigning to his fate of having lost at cards and wants Dale to know that he is impressed and upset more than a usual amount.
Oh, yeah, no
Oh, yeah, no can mean a number of things. It can mean, “I don’t want to do what you’ve asked me to but I’m trying to be polite about it.” It can mean, “I think you’re full of BS.” It can also mean, “ You don’t agree with something but don’t want to make a stink.” It’s similar to the Australasian “Yeah, Nah” and the East Coast “Yeh, Naw.”
For sure
For sure is generally used in mild cases of agreement. e.g. “Nice weather, don’t ya think?” “For sure.” But it can also mean you want the person to shut up. e.g. “But that’s not what you said last week, Gale.” “Oh, for sure.”
But, my favorite use-case is that of massive agreement. When someone says something so true that not a single person in the Midwestern group can silence themselves saying “Oh, ya, for sure.” A chorus of: “For sures” mixed with “You betchas” will ring out after someone has made an excellent point.
Here are just a few helpful phrases for your journey to the Midwest. I plan on exploiting more of my culture for essays soon and I hope you enjoy!