A former cabbie shares his favorite jargon, like green pea and making your nut. Someone waving down an occupied cab is known as a bingo, and the cabbie will usually tell the dispatcher to send another car. A San Diego cabdriver has gathered much more taxi slang. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cabbie Slang”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
I didn’t know until recently that I’ve been a bingo.
Ooh, yeah?
Or at least I would have been a bingo had I been trying to hail a cab in Seattle 30 years ago.
The reason I know this is because you and I, Grant, asked listeners to share slang from their workplace.
And over on our Facebook page, Randy Raymond shared some of his memories of being a taxi driver.
In Seattle 30 years ago?
Yes.
Okay, yeah.
Yes. And Randy reports that in his experience, a bingo was someone who was hailing a cab that the driver wasn’t able to pick up because he already had a customer.
So the driver might tell the dispatcher, bingo at third and pike, so another cab would come along and get the passenger.
Very good.
I’ve been a bingo many times, especially in the rain. I’m sure that happened a lot in Seattle.
They never seem to come for me.
You’re not a bingo.
I end up trudging in the rain.
Well, what else did he have on his list?
Another one that he had that I really liked was green pea.
And I’ve seen this used in the automotive industry for a brand new dealer at the car dealership, a green pea.
But you also refer to a new cab driver that way.
Oh, so this is related to the more general use of somebody being green means they’re new or wet behind the ears.
Yes.
Very good.
Green pea.
Yeah.
And so, all right, I’m looking at this.
Randy’s got some great stuff.
And I see nut on here.
And this is the amount of money that the cab driver has to pay to the shop that he’s renting the car from, right?
Right.
And that reminds me of the poker term because in order to make your nut,
You’ve got to reach that bare minimum of value, right?
In poker, it’s the best possible hand.
And so, like, if you make your nut, that means that you just got the card you needed to get the flush, right?
And in the car, if you make your nut, it means that you just got enough fares so you can pay your rent
And everything that you earn for the rest of the night is yours.
That’s right.
Very good.
I love this.
He just really dished it out, didn’t he?
He did, and we love it when people share their workplace jargon.
And we’d love to hear about jargon in your workplace.
You can put it on our Facebook page or Facebook group or email us, words@waywordradio.org.
And you can call us to talk about any aspect of language.
That number is 877-929-9673.
