32 Words That Mean Something Entirely Different In The Bronx

1. The

What it means everywhere else: The article that you use a billion times a day but don’t realize how hard it is to explain until you try to.
What it means in The Bronx: The introduction to the best place in the world. What other city do you know that gets a “The” before its name? That’s right, there are none. And if you’re legit Bronx, it’s “Da” Bronx.

2. Fire Hydrant

What it means everywhere else: The emergency water supply system on your block.
What it means in The Bronx: Your summer swimming pool. Also known as a “johnny pump” to the crowd with a little more life experience.

3. The Streets

What it means everywhere else: Where you clutch your purse a little tighter.
What it means in The Bronx: Where you got your education.

4. Yankees

What it means everywhere else: The most hated baseball team in the MLB.
What it means in The Bronx: The best baseball team in the MLB. Hometown heroes. Haters gonna hate.

5. Cursing

What it means everywhere else: Your string of expletives after stubbing your toe on the corner of the bed. Again.
What it means in The Bronx: Your second language.

6. Manhattan

What it means everywhere else: The most exciting city on earth, hence the never sleeping thing.
What it means in The Bronx: Overrated, obnoxious, with inflated egos. In other words, Manhattan is exactly like Miss Piggy.

7. Brooklyn

What it means everywhere else: Where all the cool, misunderstood, artist-types hang.
What it means in The Bronx: Where all the transplants who want to be cool, misunderstood, artist-types move to.

8. Familia

What it means everywhere else: The way you say family in Italian.
What it means in The Bronx: Your family in The Bronx.

9. Grocery Store

What it means everywhere else: Your local chain or, if you enjoy spending a mortgage on produce, Whole Foods.
What it means in The Bronx: The local bodega, where you picked up three eggs, one light bulb, a bag of kitty litter, and a Zippo for dinner.

10. Jennifer Lopez

What it means everywhere else: The dancer-turned-actress-turned-singer-turned-American-Idol-judge with the fairly prominent derriere.
What it means in The Bronx: Jenny who claims to be from the block but never comes back to the block.

11. Cream Drinks

What it means everywhere else: A cream root beer or milkshake.
What it means in The Bronx: Vanilla egg creams. A concoction crafted decades ago that is still beloved in The Bronx and becomes one of the first things you miss when you leave.

12. Stickball

What it means everywhere else: The game you’ve seen people playing in city alleys and parking lots on vintage television.
What it means in The Bronx: The original sport of The Bronx.

13. Handball

What it means everywhere else: A ball you can hold with your hand. So, basically every ball.
What it means in The Bronx: The only street sport in the Bronx better than stickball, for those who can stand to take a bruising.

14. Breakdancing

What it means everywhere else: When Jermaine came to Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and schooled good old Fred on the art of urban dancing and you wished that you could watch it 100 times but you couldn’t because it was the 80s and there were no DVRs or YouTube.
What it means in The Bronx: The B-boy phenomenon that started with the Rock Steady Crew in the Bronx in the 70s. Yes, even Mr. Rogers was late to the game. But we still love you, Fred.

15. A Bronx Tale

What it means everywhere else: That Robert DeNiro movie you saw a dozen years ago.
What it means in The Bronx: A dozen life lessons, rolled up into one Robert DeNiro movie. Too bad automatic car door locks ruined the door test.

16. Creatures

What it means everywhere else: The small animals that rifle through your trash.
What it means in The Bronx: Yankees fans, a powder keg of passion (and a little beer) waiting to explode.

17. Loud

What it means everywhere else: How that one neighbor gets on Fridays when the after party ends up back at her house.
What it means in The Bronx: What the Bronx is, 24/7. From the streets, to the people in it, they’ve got one volume nob, and it’s always set to 11.

18. Pelham

What it means everywhere else: Some movie on a train with Denzel Washington and John Travolta’s weird mustache.
What it means in The Bronx: Pelham Bay Park. The biggest and best park in the entire Universe. Suck it, Central Park.

19. Hudson River

What it means everywhere else: That iconic river where the Statue Of Liberty resides.
What it means in The Bronx: Whatever you do, DO NOT eat the fish.

20. Underdog

What it means everywhere else: What your favorite team seems to be going into the playoffs every year.
What it means in The Bronx: The Bronx to every other borough.

21. Best Pizza Ever

What it means everywhere else: New York City or Chicago style, depending on your preference.
What it means in The Bronx: Bronx pizza. There is no disputing this. It’s just a fact that everywhere else chooses to ignore. A sausage slice from Louie & Ernie’s is like the red pill in the Matrix and will change everything you’ve ever been told.

22. Island

What it means everywhere else: A far-off, tropical beach location.
What it means in The Bronx: City Island, a little slice of New England in The Bronx with the best seafood. Here, you can eat the fish.

23. Graffiti

What it means everywhere else: Some tags and maybe a cool mural or two around town.
What it means in The Bronx: Five Pointz, what possibly was the most legendary public arts display ever. They tore it down, but the memory will live on.

24. High Strung

What it means everywhere else: How your bridezilla friend acted while planning her wedding.
What it means in The Bronx: What everybody is like all the time. They’ve got opinions, swear words, and the voice boom of a megaphone, you wanna make something of it?

25. Zoo

What it means everywhere else: That place with the giraffes.
What it means in The Bronx: The zoo of all zoos which sets the zoo bar so high, you’ll find yourself walking around Magic Kingdom in Disney World shrugging your shoulders and saying things like, “Meh. I’ve seen better in the Bronx Zoo.”

26. Arthur

What it means everywhere else: Your weird uncle.
What it means in The Bronx: The real Little Italy of NYC, where the sausage from Peter’s Market will slap you in the face and have you begging for more.

27. Boogie

What it means everywhere else: What you blew into your tissue.
What it means in The Bronx: Without The Bronx, there would be no hip hop. Now boogie down.

28. Cheesecake

What it means everywhere else: A slice of dessert at the diner.
What it means in The Bronx: A little slice of heaven from S&S Cheesecake that is so good, you won’t be able to have a complete thought while eating it because everything leads back to “Holy crap, this is so good!”

29. Train

What it means everywhere else: The thing that goes choo choo around your Christmas tree.
What it means in The Bronx: Your ride. Everywhere.

30. Bread

What it means everywhere else: The best thing in the world that only got better when someone thought of slicing it.
What it means in The Bronx: Pretzels, bread, rolls…basically, anything you can pile into two arms from Bronx Baking Co.

31. Sleep

What it means everywhere else: What you try to get enough of every night, contingent upon the perfect conditions.
What it means in The Bronx: Being able to sleep through anything and, literally, everything.

32. WTF?

What it means everywhere else: What you say to yourself as you scroll through Internet headlines.
What it means in The Bronx: What you say to yourself every day when you walk down the street. Sometimes it’s with a laugh, other times it’s with a furrowed brow, but what never changes is that there’s always something interesting going on in The Bronx. What other words mean something different in the The Bronx? Tell us in the comments below!