You say Potato, I say Potahto...

[toploader55]

After reading ads on CL and just over the years...

What word do you use for the phrase to go to that building with coin operated Washers and Dryers ?

Some I've heard over the years are LaundroMat, CoinOp,Coin Laundry, Wash O Mat, etc.

One that drives me nuts on CL is "LaundryMat". I Don't know why, and "Washer Machine". is another.

What Title do you give to that building with the Machines ?

 

[supersuds]

We always said laundromat. I remember driving through a small town on a family vacation in the early 70s seeing the Laundrymat spelling for the first time. We all thought that was hilarious. Guess the joke was on us.

 

Some other spellings/pronunciations that make me laugh are "perculator" for percolator and "esculator" for escalator.

 

[yogitunes]

I think sometimes it comes from launguage slang, of an area your from, wether North or far South.....the way its pronounced is unique by individuals....I like hearing people talk with an accent.....

my Dad always referred the washer as a "wooshing machine".....you can take the man out of the hills!...but you can't take the hills out of the man!...

 

[perc-o-prince]

Laundromat here, too.

Supersuds: let's not forget 'nuculer' for nuclear (just because some idiot from Texas said it repeatedly doesn't make it right), 'for all intensive purposes' instead of for all intents and purposes, and 'collectables' for collectibles. For the last one, why is it spelled incorrectly on professionally-made signs? Don't these businesses have spell check?

Chuck

 

[washerboy]

several

I've heard it called a number of things:

1) the "washer"
2) washateria (sp?)
3) the "wishey wash"
4) Laundry Matt

 

[mickeyd]

'roun heah

we say laundramat, the "oh" softened to an " uh."

We we were kids, my Aunt Margaret's friend would say "warsh" for wash and we thought that was hilarious. Then we heard it again from a few other people. And I think it's heard in other place across the land.

LIke Martin, I love hearing all of our diverse and musical accents; and like Chuck, I'm afraid that some of the Bushisms like nucular and internets might stick. OH NO.

 

[ozzie908]

Here they are mostly known as ....

Launderette....!

Washeteria...!

Wash n dry coin op.

Austin

 

[lordkenmore]

Laundromat is what I hear the most, and is what I sometimes use. I also say "coin operated laundry." My quirk is that I tend to use a capital "L" for "Laundromat" since it was originally a trade name. Plus, since I tend to be several decades out of date most of the time, it makes sense to use language the way it was supposed to be used back then.

Although in today's world, Merriam-Webster's online dictionary also capitalizes Laundromat:

Definition of LAUNDROMAT

a self-service laundry —formerly a U.S. registered trademark… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[chestermikeuk]

Known As

Launderette or "The BagWash"

 

[circlew]

Washateria

I usually refer to it as the "washateria" since that's what my mom called it. She was from southern Mississippi, and that's what they call a coin laundry there.

 

[joeekaitis]

 

 

Laundromat.  Ain't been there in ages because our front-loader handles our king-size bed linens.

 

[foraloysius]

Dutch

Overhere we say "wasserette" or "wassalon".

 

[macboy91si]

Here

It's a warsher and a laundrymat. I do not however pronounce them as such, but thought it interesting that people "up north" say "warsher" as well. The coin-op We went to as a kid (see profile pic) was called a the Coin-Laundry, we never had any Westinghouse coin-op shops here so I'm not sure about why people call it a laundromat, which I thought was a Westy coined phrase. Growing up, all of the original coin-op shops were still in service, now there's only one. Speed Queen, Frigidaire and GE. The 1st 2 went the way-side and GE is the dominator in this town. Some newer, small coin-ops have sprouted up and they seem to be primarily Huebsch/SQ. I never remember there being any Maytag laundries in my home town. In fact, the profile pic I have was taken in the 1st commercial coin-op laundry in town, the rest followed in the mid 60's and early 70's then stopped until about 10 years ago when some newer small facilities opened up here and there.

 

People here also have a tendency to pluralize words (ex. Krogers) which I don't fully understand, mostly with older, rural people.

 

 

-Tim

 

[yogitunes]

a quirky one yet.....Norge Village..........a slang that everyone knew as a Laundromat.....the strip mall was brown brick, with the roof overhang in dark wood shingles....and the whole place was colored cream, and shades of light and dark brown....from the machines, walls, fixtures, and floors...

and funny yet, the one we had here, only the dryers were Norge.....the washers were Maytags or GE FF

 

[toggleswitch]

AH DO LOVE MAH DIXIE *BOIS*

potato versus po-tah-to

LAUNDR-O-MAT

Probably a shortening of LAUNDRY AND AUTOMATED.



ENGLISH IS NOT A PHONETIC LANGUAGE
is the first thing foreigners are taught when learning English as a second language.

I got myself in trouble on this board for teasing a southerner for spelling FRIGIDAIRE as FRI-JA-DIRE, probably phonetically writing out what he spoke to follow his accent/drawl/twang and mispronunciation.

....he says in his LAWN-GUY-LAND NEW-YAWK ACCENT.

(ducks and runs)

 

[washerboy]

Re: Toggles

Ahhh...Toggleswitch...what southerner could you offend? If you passed through town I promise someone would insist you come home for dinner. BTW..you can't help that you talk funny...god love ya...you're a yankee...LOL!!!! ps..actually I love to hear you guys talk..I have a friend that grew up on Long Island...sometimes I'm not quite sure what the heck he's saying. Happy Thanksgiving/mark

 

[circlew]

Tim, when people say "Kroger's", I don't think they're thinking plural (as in more than one store), but as a place that belongs to the Kroger Co. Just like when one of your friends is going to visit you at your home, they say they're going to Tim's.

The company is based in this area, and I hear most people around here say Kroger's.

 

[xraytech]

Martin,

 

When you said your father calls it the wooshing machine, he must come from somewhere in SW Pennsylvania as that is how it is said in these parts, or some call it a warshing machine. Essentialy any word containing wash is said woosh or warsh.

 

Oh yeah we call them laundromats here.

 

Other words that are misprounounced around here are:

samich = sandwich

chimley = chimney

crick = creek

jumbo = bologna

warshington or washington = washington

oh and best of all we have yinz which is the equivalent of ya'll, and then there is the jagoff(jack off)

 

[yogitunes]

Yes Sam....my parents are originally from your parts of Western Pennsylvania........Uniontown, McClendontown, Smock, HooverWorks(Coal Mine), Masontown....a great place to visit, I always visit the big Cross on the hill, and the Caverns, love the scenary along Route 40.....

another one from your area is "POP"....referring to soda pop.....

scary to think Sam........if my parents never moved to Jersey.......the mischief you and I would get into....