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 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 name meaning “bear mountain.”

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.

A farming borough of the Ringtown Valley on the county’s northern edge — a post office called Catawissa Valley until 1854, a borough since 1909.

A west-end borough hemmed by three mountains — Broad, Sharp, and Second — whose name says so: tre, three; mont, mountain.

A borough on the Schuylkill below Pottsville, named for John Chapman Cresson, the Philadelphia engineer who headed the Schuylkill Navigation; West Haven, before its 1857 incorporation.

The county’s first seat (1811–1851), laid out in 1796 by Peter Orwig on his family’s land; the government moved to Pottsville, and the name stayed put.

The township and farming valley on the county’s far west end — Pennsylvania Dutch country under Mahantango Mountain.

A high-plateau borough at the county’s northeast corner, renamed from Pleasant Hill for a William McAdoo at its 1896 incorporation.

The Kline Township village where the 1934 election-eve shootings — the Kelayres massacre — killed five marchers in a Democratic parade.

A Cass Township mining patch — Payne’s Patch, until the New York Heckschers bought the Payne brothers’ coal holding and the name followed.

The coal city and creek over the county’s western line — a Lenape name commonly glossed “place of eels,” and a hub of the Philadelphia and Reading’s coal operations.

The Berks County city downriver, and the railroad that carried its name — whose coal-and-iron company came to own a third of the county’s coalfield. Said like the color, not the pastime.

Luzerne County’s seat and the northern coalfield’s capital, named for the parliamentarians John Wilkes and Isaac Barré; the second name’s pronunciation was anglicized long ago.

An anthracite city on the high plateau just over the Luzerne County line, named for the hazel that grew along Hazle Creek — its mines drew the same immigrant waves that built the Schuylkill coal towns.

The creek that drains the county’s southwest corner and the state park at its gap — a Susquehannock name glossed “where we feed on eels.”

The village, lake, and state park near Tamaqua, all carrying the name of the Iroquoian nation that became the sixth of the Six Nations.

Conrad Weiser, the Pennsylvania German interpreter-diplomat who brokered the 1749 purchase that opened the county’s land; the state forest at Port Clinton carries his name.

“The original people” — the Indigenous nation of this land, whose language still names the county’s waters and towns, from Mahanoy to Tamaqua. Their descendant nations continue today, and say the name themselves as luh-NAH-pay.

The Byzantine-rite Slavic people of the coal towns — builders of America’s first Greek Catholic parish (Shenandoah, 1884) and its onion-domed churches; a name and identity still debated.

John “Black Jack” Kehoe, Girardville tavern-keeper and the alleged “king” of the Molly Maguires — hanged in 1878, pardoned a century later; his Hibernian House still pours.

Dr. Jonas Šliūpas, physician and firebrand of the Lithuanian national awakening, who organized the first national Lithuanian-American alliance at Shenandoah in 1886.

Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, the Ashland-born priest who led Catholic Philadelphia as archbishop from 1918 to 1951, a cardinal from 1921 — said the Philadelphia way.

General George A. Joulwan, Pottsville-born and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1993 to 1997; the city named an East Side park for him.

Patrick H. Monaghan, the Mayo-born Minersville corporal of the 48th Pennsylvania who took back a captured flag at Petersburg and received the Medal of Honor.

The Pottsville coal family of Peter W. Sheafer (1819–1891), the geologist and surveyor whose 1855 map charted the county; his sons Henry and Arthur W. gave the larger share of the Free Public Library's cost in memory of their sister Louise.

The Igbo surname in Krasno, Krasno and Onwudinjo, a Pennsylvania law firm whose Pottsville office and television ads have made the name a local fixture.

The hunter of Schuylkill County legend who is said to have discovered anthracite about 1790 when his campfire on Broad Mountain set the outcrop alight; his name is on the Necho Allen Hotel in Pottsville. The first name takes a hard k — NEE-koh, not netch-oh.

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.

The Lithuanian grated-potato pudding — potatoes, bacon, onion, and egg baked deep brown, cut in squares, and eaten with sour cream; a Lithuanian Days staple, where menus list it simply as kugel.

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.

The wintergreen flavor of a native mountain plant, and the plant itself — gathered on the county's ridges, brewed as tea, sold as candy in Pottsville a century ago, and still churned into the bright pink ice cream Pennsylvania is known for.

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 place on the far side of whichever mountain lies between — north or south (or any direction really), depending on your perspective. If you’re up Shenandoah and have to pick up grandma in Orwigsburg, you’re headed all the way down the other side of the mountain.

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.

A keg of beer for a party.

A drinking party held out in the woods.

The rear end, from the Polish word for it; also spelled dupa.

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

A casual run-together of “have to.”

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

“Did you eat yet?” — the words run together into “jeet yet,” a standing local greeting, usually answered just as fast.

“Electric,” with the first syllable dropped.

Blacktop; asphalt pavement, from the macadam paving method.

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

A 16-ounce can of beer.

“Pumpkin,” with the middle clipped.

Puttering around; keeping busy with small, unhurried tasks.

“Radiator,” said with a flat short-a up front.

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.

“Stupid,” with the vowel flattened.

An out-of-the-way spot up in the mountains or by the strip mines — most often a place to gather and drink.

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

A friendly way to address someone — at the front of a sentence or tagged on the end, sometimes just “butt,” and “yo bott” or “hoh butt” depending on what side of what mountain you hail from. Almost always affectionate, even when it’s “Yo butt, get the hell off my lawn!”

A plural form of “you,” similar to “you all.” Often written “youse,” and sometimes heard as “yaz.”