Ed in Florence, South Carolina, remembers that when he was stationed at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, the locals used a couple of words he’d never heard. They’d use “Ish!” as an interjection to express disgust and ishy, which describes something disgusting or revolting. These terms are heard primarily in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and most likely come from the language of Swedish and Norwegian settlers in the region. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ish and Ishy”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Ed Brumley, and I’m calling from Florence, South Carolina, but I’m here on business, and I live in Lardsville, Illinois.
But I have a question concerning the word ish. It’s a word that I heard often when I was stationed in Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota. It was a word that kind of, what I understand, it was kind of gross or nasty. I’d hear it even on the radio where they would say, today’s going to be an ishy day. The first time I heard that, I thought, did he say ishy? But no, it’s ish, I-S-H. And I know a lot of my friends from Minnesota, they had a way of speaking that, too. And, you know, if it was something that they just didn’t like, they would say ish. And is this a foreign word from another country?
Yeah. You just incorporate to the, it is.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you’ve nailed like whole big parts of the story of ish.
Okay. It’s used mainly in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and a few other places. And it comes from the Scandinavian heritage there, probably from the Swedish and Norwegian settlers. And both of those languages, and possibly Danish as well, they have an interjection or an utterance that’s kind of ish, that you use to kind of express disgust or horror or revulsion or just dissatisfaction. And it was borrowed directly into English from those languages.
So that is a foreign word that’s commonly used in Scandinavia?
Well, yeah, exactly. It’s commonly used in Sweden and in Norway. And now it’s been anglicized. It is fully an English word in that part of the United States now.
Yeah, definitely that part of it. I travel around the country, and I don’t hear it anywhere else. It’s just definitely North Dakota, Minnesota, and they definitely have a different language. Another common thing was y’all, sure you bet. Y’all, sure you bet.
Yeah. Yeah, Minnesota, Wisconsin. And I’ve heard it described as, the word ish described as the sound you make when you step barefoot on a banana. On a peeled banana. It’s ish. I mean, I can see why it has some staying power because it sort of sounds like a combination of squishy and icky.
Yeah. But it has Scandinavian roots. Some word historians have theorized that the ick in English is related back in the mists of time to this very word in these Scandinavian languages.
Oh, well, fantastic. Like I said, it’s amazing. I’m 60 years old, and I’ve traveled all over the country, and I’ve never heard it anywhere else but there. And like I said, for it to be commonly used even on the radio, I thought that was pretty amazing.
We’re one country, but boy, we speak a lot of different Englishes, don’t we?
Yeah, truly, truly.
Yeah, call us again sometime with another report from the road.
Very good. Well, thank you so much. Have a great time. Bye-bye.
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