Ask any Midwesterner and they’ll give you a list of activities that are quintessential to living in the middle of the United States: playing cornhole, eating casserole, and taking 30 minutes to say goodbye at a social gathering, just to name a few. Another requisite is the use of terms such as “pop” and “Naptown” that may sound strange to folks from other places. Natives of the Midwest have an endearing lingo all their own, and we’re here today to shed some light on this unique vernacular. You’ll be saying “Ope!” and making puppy chow in no time.
Pronounced like “hope” with the “h” dropped, this is the Midwestern flavor of “whoops” or “my bad.” The origins of this interjection are unclear, but it comes in handy when you’ve bumped into someone, dropped your keys, or made a wrong turn. Essentially, “ope” is the way Midwesterners apologize to anyone for anything.
Hailing from the Minnesota-Dakotas-Wisconsin corridor, “hotdish” is usually considered a synonym for a casserole, although there’s a key difference between the two words. Casseroles are versatile enough to be considered a main course, side dish, or even a dessert. A hotdish, on the other hand, is always a standalone main dish because its ingredients encompass all the food groups. It must contain either a “cream of” soup or a tomato base, a starch, veggies, and typically some form of meat. Then there’s a topping with some crunch to it (such as Tater Tots, breadcrumbs, or cornflakes), and, of course, cheese — because it wouldn’t be a Wisconsin dish otherwise.
You know what would go well with that hotdish? A pop! Though folks in other parts of the U.S. may also say “pop,” the term is most closely linked to the Midwest. In most regions, people order sodas — except in the South, where folks collectively (and somewhat confusingly) refer to any kind of soft drink as a “Coke.”
Possibly the most delightful way to agree with someone, reassure them you’re on the same page, or even just show acceptance of another person’s point of view, this Midwestern expression works well as an affirmation in just about any situation.
In Minnesota, this is commonly tacked on to the end of sentences as a way to elicit a response. “You betcha!” and “Dontcha know?” make for a harmonious combo in conversation.
To unwind after a long day, you might head to the bar and grab a brewski — a combination of the word “brew” and an ending perhaps inspired by the common Slavonic suffix -ski. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, it’s a combination of “brew” and “the pattern of Russian surnames ending in -skiĭ.” This term originally spilled out of frat houses in the Midwest and made its national debut in a 1977 Saturday Night Live “Coneheads” sketch with the line, “Yes, we were extremely upset to find six-packs of brewski in the children’s trick-or-treat bags.” Speaking of beer, a “red beer,” a Nebraskan specialty, is a brewski mixed with tomato juice and a shot of hot sauce.
It’s also a nickname for Maryland’s capital city, Annapolis, but “Naptown” is what Hoosiers call Indianapolis — a town once considered sleepy because of its slower pace of life in the early 20th century. Club musicians may have coined the nickname to avoid saying the six syllables of “Indianapolis,” and area radio stations such as WNAP popularized the term by featuring it heavily on their airwaves in the 1960s. Indianapolis is now the 16th most populous city in the U.S. (and home to the Indy 500 automobile race), so it seems to have outgrown its “sleepiness,” but the moniker is here to stay.
Also called “muddy buddies,” this snack — especially popular in Iowa — consists of Chex cereal coated in a mixture of peanut butter, chocolate, and confectioner’s sugar. Puppy chow got its name because, at first glance, it looks a lot like dog food.
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