Chuck It vs. Chunk It

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Selena Letera. I’m calling from Tucson, Arizona.

Hi, Selena. Welcome to the show. What can we help you with?

Well, I have a question about a debate that I have with my boyfriend on a regular basis.

He’s from Texas and I’m from New York. It’s really a wonder we can even communicate.

But we’ve been together for nine and a half years and often I have to get out my Texan English dictionary.

But one of the things that we discuss on a regular basis is the difference in how we say something when we’re describing how to throw something out.

He says that the difference is because of where we were raised.

He was born in Dallas.

I was born in New York in the Bronx.

And when he throws something out, he says, oh, you know, I don’t need that. Just chunk it.

And I say, oh, I don’t need that. Just chunk it.

So I say chuck is the correct way, and he says chunk.

So I wanted to get the definitive answer on this so we could finally settle this or not.

So you say chuck, C-H-U-C-K, and that means to toss or to throw.

And he says chunk, C-H-U-N-K, and that means to toss or to throw, right?

To him it does, yes.

Here’s the big news, and to millions of people in the American South.

He’s right, you know.

It’s Southernism, and he’s not alone.

Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, you name it.

In the South, they say it.

But Chuck isn’t wrong.

Chuck isn’t wrong either.

You were both right.

But he’s right.

It’s about where he learned it because of where he comes from.

Oh, well, that’s not really thrilling to hear.

I know who’s going to be doing the happy dance.

But here’s the thing.

I think he’s going to be doing the happy dance, exactly.

And it was because it was a Southern thing, and I even said, well, Martha’s from the South. She’s going to know the answer to this.

Well, you know, you might find this chunk verb in the speech of some Southerners, but not all Southerners.

But you almost never find it in the speech of people from anywhere else in the country, the North and the West and so forth.

Yeah, I have to say, I would say Chuck.

Yeah, I would usually say Chuck, too.

But I have heard chunk.

The word goes back at least 200 years in American English.

It’s been recorded as an Americanism for a very long time, specifically called out in a variety of dictionaries as being particular to the American South for a very long time.

That’s so interesting.

It’s interesting to me that they mean the same thing because to me to chunk something is something much heavier.

Yeah, it lands with a thud.

Interesting.

Exactly.

Or, you know, cooking and chopping something up in chunks.

It just, I thought my head was going to spin the first time I heard it.

He’s going to be so thrilled to hear this.

So I would argue that you need to appreciate this southern gentleman, well, I hope he’s a gentleman, that lives in your house.

Yeah, don’t chuck him. Don’t get rid of him.

And start to find the charm in his particular way of saying things.

I’m sure you’ve got some New Yorkies in you that he wonders about, right?

Oh, I definitely, yes, I definitely do.

And with my family, he’s learned a whole new slew of words.

Nice.

I love that.

I think that’s, I love it when two cultures get together in a family, right? In the same household.

Well, it’s great.

And, you know, the thing is, is that we drive an 18-wheeler, so we’re all over the country.

Oh, yeah.

And we do hear a lot of different words and phrases in different parts of the country.

So I do appreciate all of those differences.

But when it comes right down to having a battle at your kitchen table.

Or in the cabin.

Only one of you gets to sleep in the bunk that night.

That’s right.

Well, cool.

Thank you for calling in the future.

Call us again about your stories from the road, the stuff that you’re picking up.

We’d love to hear it.

Yeah, we’d love to hear from him, too.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Best wishes to you.

Bye-bye.

Okay, bye-bye now.

We’d love to be charmed by you.

Call us with your stories and tales, your romantic interludes that always devolve into language.

877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.