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My family always referred to a bottle opener as a church key. My husband had never heard the term. We both grew up in the Chicago suburbs.
He was recently in North Carolina. A New Yorker used the term church key for bottle opener, but none of the North Carolinians knew what he was talking about.
Does anyone have any information on this term?
Well, I grew up in Wisconsin and the term is quite common there. I do remember when I first heard it I had to have it explained to me. It didn't really make sense. Now that I live in Arizona, I rarely hear it. Not sure of the etymology behind it. Wiki has this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchkey#Churchkey
Seems that the original plain metal openers looked a little like those large ornate keys that were actually used to lock/unlock the typically large doors on churches.
Interesting concatenation of places. I was born in Madison, WI, and my earliest memories are of Minneapolis, but my parents and grandparents are from Fontana, WI, an hour or two northwest of Chicago just over the border. And then they moved me from the Midwest; I graduated from high school in Raleigh, NC, and raised all my kids in Greensboro. I never hear "church key" down here, either, but I've a vague memory of it meaning something in my youth, maybe from my grandparents. Guess now I'll have to ask my mom about it.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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