Coal Region glossary

The river, and the county named for it. Dutch for a “hidden creek,” and almost never said the way it is spelled.

Pottsville’s uphill street of mansions, which John O’Hara recast as “Lantenengo Street” in his Gibbsville fiction.

The Pottsville brewing family, established in 1829 and the oldest operating brewery in the country. The name is German for “young man.”

A borough and creek in the southern county, from the Lenape word for “beaver.”

A northern coal town whose name takes the stress on its first syllable; some old-timers still say “Mockanoy.”

A hard-coal borough that locals clip to “Shendo,” and that the Scranton area stretches to “Shannondorsky.”

A borough built on coal land once owned by the Philadelphia financier Stephen Girard, for whom it is named.

The former name of Jim Thorpe, the Carbon County town that voted in 1954 to take the athlete’s name. From a Lenape word for “bear.”

A Carbon County coal borough carrying a Lenape name that outsiders rarely land on the first try.

A Pottsville newspaper name; the county airport honors Joe Zerbey III, who championed it and died flying the paper’s plane.

The Coal Region name for crisp grated-potato pancakes, especially familiar at church picnics and fairs.

A homemade Coal Region winter punch of citrus, honey, spices, and whiskey, strongly associated with Christmas gatherings.

Fried eggs with soft, runny yolks meant for dipping toast.

Stuffed cabbage rolls filled with meat and rice, usually cooked in tomato sauce; spellings and fillings vary by family.

Buttery cabbage with noodles or small dumplings, with strong Slovak and Polish roots.

Filled dumplings—commonly potato and cheese in the region—boiled and often browned with butter and onions.

Local soppressata-style cured sausage, especially associated with Italian American communities around Kulpmont.

A person from Pennsylvania’s anthracite Coal Region; often used as a proud regional identity.

Fine anthracite waste or the dark banks of coal refuse left from mining and processing.

A small coal-company neighborhood or settlement built near a mine or colliery.

Most often south of Broad Mountain, a phrase used as both geography and a cultural dividing line within Schuylkill County; which mountain depends on the speaker’s hometown.

A furnace; the term persists from the coal-fired units that had to be stoked.

A water-filled or abandoned surface-mining excavation; historically a dangerous local landmark.

An informal nickname for Schuylkill County. Not every resident uses or favors it.

Toward the northern or higher Coal Region towns; the exact direction depends on the speaker’s hometown.

Going to the New Jersey coast, regardless of the compass direction from where you started.

A tag question meaning roughly “isn’t that so?” or “right?” More broadly associated with Northeastern Pennsylvania speech.

Turn off or extinguish the light. “Outen” is also heard elsewhere in Pennsylvania German-influenced speech.

A playground slide.

Slippery, especially a road, sidewalk, or hill in winter.

A traditional condolence offered to a grieving family at a viewing or wake, rooted in the Irish “sorry for your troubles” and shared across the county’s communities.

A faucet or spigot.

A regional pronunciation of “wash,” heard in parts of Pennsylvania and beyond.

A plural form of “you,” similar to “you all.” Said the way it looks.

The county’s other plural “you,” said exactly like the word “use.” Heard alongside yiz, and often written “youse.”