Some Cleveland-Area Words and Pronunciations

 Cleveland Words

• Canadian soldier. A kind of mayfly, born on Lake Erie, living about a day. They sometimes cover screens, sidewalks, and buildings within a mile of the lake in late June.

• Babushka. From the Russian word for grandmother. A cloth head covering worn by all Catholic women in Euclid in the 1950s and '60s.

• Potica. (pronounced po-TEE-tsuh). A dessert nut or poppy-seed roll.

• Pierogi. Pasta stuffed with meat, potatoes, or fruit. Often fried with onions.

• Treelawn. The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street.

• Luckystone. Small, polished stones composed of milky quartz, found mostly in eastern Cuyahoga, Lake, and Ashtabula Counties on the Lakeshore. See the photo below.

• Parish. Cleveland Catholics lived in parishes, not named neighborhoods. "I live in OLA." (Our Lady of Angels). This is almost surely fading out.

• Davenport. A long stuffed chair that could seat 3-4 people. Similar to a couch or sofa.

• Lake Effect. Huge snowfalls generated by Lake Erie falling often on higher elevations on Cleveland's East Side.

• Youse. Plural of "you," common among Euclid Slovenians.

• Pail (chosen over bucket)

• You can call a rivulet a Brook or Creek. Many local waterways are called brooks, as in "Doan Brook."

Some word pronunciations:

Sorry. SORE-ee (not sah-ree).

Tomorrow. Tuh-MORE-oh.

Cuyahoga. Cuy-uh-HOG-uh. Keep the HOG in CuyaHOGa.

Coupon. KOO-pahn. Not KYOO-pahn.

Many of these words and pronunciations were common on the East Side of Cleveland in the 1950s and '60s.

The round white stones at the foot of St. Francis are Lake Erie luckystones.#

Comments from Kathleen P.:

I love this list. Some of the words I never heard of, but Babushka brought back memories.  That was the hat of choice for most schoolgirls I knew.  The wool ones with flower patterns were the best for Cleveland winters.  We tied them under our chins, as opposed to our bandannas tied behind our neck that I used from late '60s through the '90s.

We also wore Chapel veils and Mantillas to church. (As well as kleenex, instead of tissues, bobbi-pinned to our heads in a pinch)

Sadly I don't remember the Cleveland stones.  I've always been a "special rock" collector.  When I was a kid, my brother would go "Down in the Valley" looking for fossils.  Cincinnati soil is all fossils!  My friend, Margaret, used to live on Blue Rock Road, and that led to years of collecting blue-grey rocks for her garden.  In Oregon we look for sea glass and stones shaped like hearts.  We also have agates which can look almost like quartz that you can see the light come through.  Our State rock is called the Thunder Rock - round ugly looking rocks that crack open to reveal crystals. (Same as a Geode, maybe).

Lake Effect, Parish, and Tree Lawn are three that are unique to Cleveland/NE Ohio I think.  Also we had lightening bugs instead of fireflies.  We had "money catchers", which could be anything from those large Mayflies to bits of pollen falling through the air. Cleveland area also has Buzzards, instead of Vultures, and Locusts instead of Cicadas.

Our family had Pully-bones instead of Wishbones.  I think that was from my mother's Southern culture.

A bit of an aside: My daughter recently asked me what I meant by Soda Jerk.