da back: woods and/or mountain brush usually just outside of the coal region town you lived in.

"drive out da back"

babka: a pie made with potatoes, eggs, onions, milk, etc. Also known as a meat pie when meat is added. Found in many Eastern Europe cuisines and also coal region. 

"You can find a recipe for Babka pie in our Coal region Cookbooks section on this website"

babci: Pronounced "bob-shee" who is an elderly woman. It's a Polish word for granny or "gramma".

"Da babci makes good pierogis"

babushka: cloth worn on the head of elderly ladies. Kids loved pronouncing "bah-bush-kah". This clothing garment often had  garish colors and horrible patterns but the elderly loved them. - especially to church and outside their home. 

"Babci's babushka look'd like bolio"

baden suit: bathing suit. Stress the "A" when you pronounce it. baaaaden suit

"I wanted ta go swimmin'up da lansford shit crik, but I forgot my baden suit, da frick!" 😂🤣

barbecue: Sloppy-Joe-like but much tastier concoction served on hamburger buns at block parties. 

barley candy: an opaque hard candy, sort of off-white or yellowish in color. See also mozhee candy. Image on the right. this candy was often shaped into toys. 

barney: a heavy, plated vehicle which ran on a narrower guage of tracks than did the lokie. Near the bottom of the plane the "barney" ducked into its hole and the cars ran by gravity to a collection track.

Barnesville: east of Mahanoy City of Route 54. This was the site of Lakewood Park, and the ever popular Bavarian Summer Festival.

barrel: a keg of beer. Coal Region is known for its drive thru beer stores for keg pickups right into the back of your pickup. You dont see these much anyore outside of NEPA.  

barroom: bar or drinking establishment. Many times a barroom is the first floor (or basement) of someone's house, hence the reference to it as a room of the house. These still exist to this day and can be found in many coal region homes. 

"Hey Ronnie if i visit, can I stop by your barroom?" 🤣

batroom: known as a bathroom. 

"l'll ketch up wit yiz; I gotta go ta da batroom."

battree: known as a car battery. 

"I can't start my car; da battree's dead."

be's: can be several things including to exist like I am here, to occur as in the meeting is Tuesday, or to have the characteristics of something. 

"He be's talking on da phone."

beamer: No, not a BMW. This is coal region fish. It is often used interchangeably with the more common word "breamer" typically this is any of various Pennsylvania marine fish (family Sparidae) related to the porgy. Can also be called a sea bream, any of various freshwater sunfishes (Lepomis and related). Usually found near the shores of pennsylvania ponds.  

Beaver Meadows: located on Route 93, on the way to "Chunk" (Mauch Chunk). Beaver Meadows predates Hazleton and many surrounding towns. Established before the Civil War. Starting place for Ario Pardee, Hazleton coal baron. 

DID YOU KNOW: the caboose used on trains was invented here, for the safety of the mine workers.

beddies: bedroom slippers, usually women's and made of terrycloth with a padded bottom.

 "The floor's so cold at night, I can't even take two steps without my beddies."

bee-you-dee-full: describing anything as beautiful. Used when something is really bee-you-dee-full.

"Nesq girls are bee you de full"

beer garden: another name for a coal region bar. In other parts of the country beer garden has a more specific meaning, such as maybe the bar includes outdoor seating. In the coal region, few beer gardens have outdoor seating.

"hilltoppers have da best beer gardens" 

benda bida: pronounced "BENJ-a BED-a". this is a Polish phrase, loosely translated as "get outta here before I hurt you!" 

"'What's da god dam noise? 

Benda bida!' he growled, shaking his fist at them."

Ber'k: local pronunciation of the town of Berwick or former classmate, BJ Ber'k last name

bet: past tense of "beat". 

"Who got bet up in dat fight up at Gin'ter Field last night?"

biatny: pronounced "by AT nee" on an angle, diagonal. 

"Yiz know what bar I mean, it's da one on a biatny from St.Mike's"

biffle kapicked: used like a threat, like you were going to get a spanking or a whipping. this is also a derivation of this term.

"If you don't behave, you're going to get your biffle kapicked!"

Bimmington: this is the coal region pronunciation of Binghamton, NY

Birchola: often called birch beer and mostly used to describe the Scranton based brand of birch beer sold throough out the coal region

Black Damp: one of the numerous dangerous gases that threatened miners’ lives. Black damp is a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas. It is heavier than air and, therefore, found near the floor of mines. It was also called Choke Damp because it could suffocate the miners. (See also fire damp)

Black Maria: Pronounced "black ma-RYE-a". This is a horse-drawn ambulance that took miners to the hospital after a mine accident. A modern usage of the term sometimes refers to a funeral hearse. Other usage is for a (police) paddy wagon.

bleenies: potato pancakes. Sometimes called "peyatskis". Visit our cook books section for a recipe

"Youz guys havin' bleenies at da block party." 

block party: bazaar, street fair. Coal regions block parties are LEGENDARY events. They are known in the areas to bring all members of the various towns and community together. 

'Da Summit Hll Block party was da best bruddah"

blowie: a hamburger with the works. Coal Region restaraunts were known for their burgers and dogs. Places like My Place Restaraunt, Harlemans, Beacon, Leibys, Coney Island, and Texas Lunch all had awesome blowies. 

blue drillins: another word for blue jeans. often worn by miners.

"Put yer blue drillins on, we gotta do some work out in the yard."

Bobtail check:  this is when the miner's paycheck was owed  to the Company more than he earned. Because the Company docked miners for tools, food, coal and medical expenses, some miners worked years without bringing home a penny. Take home pay was typically only 60-70% of a miner’s salary, but only if he was frugal. In 1875, a contract miner earned only $3 per day and his laborers earned only $2. Additionally, mines often shut down for days at a time to regulate production and prices, leaving miners with expenses, but without any income. In 1875, the average miner worked only 132 days. 

DID YOU KNOW? Merle Travis refers to the bobtail check in his classic song: Sixteen Tons (You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt).

boilo: very popular coal region homemade Yuletide beverage. This homespun potion lubricates the holidays in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country.  Everyone loves talking about its propensity to explode. Heating up a vat of alcohol over an open flame, after all, is not exactly the safest kitchen project. Schuylkill County is the heart of the Boilo Belt. Recipe can be found in our cookbooks section. Usually served hot in shot glasses. Many families have their own particular recipes. Making boilo was a leading cause of fires in the coal region. When the whiskey is added while the mixture cooks on the stovetop you can get a light show. If any of it splashes on the stove, look out!

NOTE: original Lithuanian name for boilo is "Krupnickas". As you search our collection of out of print cook books, look for the names to be used interchangeably. 

"Hey Pastor - C'mon over da house after Midnight Mass and have some boilo!"

Bony: also known as “bone” or “cocko”. This is slang for slate and other impurities. “Gobbing the bone” meant cleaning the bony, or impurities, from the coal (or gob). However, gob also referred to the fine coal refuse left on the floor of the breaker or the mine pit.

boogie-lice: those weird seed pod things that got stuck in your clothes, dogs, deer, and especially sweaters or socks. They were nearly impossible to get out. This word derives from the German dialect word, Buwwe-leis. Also called "boo-jaggers" or "booba-lice" or beggars weed. 

boontie: a rock about the size of a baseball. Used for throwing at stuff. Usually windows of neighbors who ticked you off or kids on mischief night. 

bootlegger: person who runs illegal coal mining operation. Not a common occupation anymore.

borry: often referred to as borrowing. 

"Ho, butt! Lemme borry yer Hurld, I wanna check da St. Mikes Mass schedules."

bott - l: commonly known as a glass container. when used in a coal region sentence, after a few beers, it sounds like this: 

"Yo, f***face, gimme dat bott - l."

bottla: glass container containing something. 

"I'll have another bottla beer."

braitch hole: abandoned coal mine tunnel. Sometimes called an 'airhole'. This word has welsh roots Can also be spelled like Briach or "Breichdykes pits"

"Be careful when yiz are walkin upda mountain so yiz dont fall in a braitch hole and get kilt!"

breaker: a huge building used to process (eg. "break up coal") newly mined anthracite coal. There are a number of coal breakers, most of which are abandoned dotting the region. Essentially it worked like this: Big, dirty lumps of coal came out of the mines and went in one end of the breaker. Clean, smaller size pieces of various sizes came out the other end. The breaker also filtered out slate and other rock from the coal. Machines have taken over most of the work that was done by hand for many years by men, women, and children. Breakers typically have hundreds of small windows in them. Not surprisingly, at least 50% of them are broken at any given time.

Breaker Boys: are boys who worked in the breaker, removing impurities from the coal after it was crushed and sorted. The boys (usually 10-12 years old, but sometimes as young as 6) sat on wooden planks above the chutes, kicking their feet in and out of the rushing coal to slow it down. They reached in with their bare hands to remove the impurities, sometimes slicing themselves because the slate could be sharp as glass. They weren’t allowed to wear gloves because it impaired their dexterity. Consequently, their hands and knuckles would crack and bleed from the acidity of the coal (see also Red Tip). 

DID YOU KNOW? Many kids lost limbs unclogging the belts or died from injuries. And the breaker boss struck them when they weren’t working fast enough. Boys would often exact revenge by throwing coal at him, or by walking out en masse.

Breasts: are the rooms (or stope) where mining occurred. Breasts resembled rectangular dark halls. Pillars were thick blocks or veins of coal between breasts. Wagon breasts (less than 6°) were large, shallow breasts that were big enough for wagons to carry away coal. Buggy breasts (6-12°) were steeper and required a buggy, not a wagon, to carry away coal. And Chute Breasts (12-90°) were so steep that coal had to be fed down a chute to reach the Gang Way.

Brights: as in Brights Department Stores. Bright's opened in July, 1884, at the the corner of East Ridge & Springgarden Street in Lansford. Business was so good that a new store was built a block & a half away & later modernized during the "Roaring 20s". For decades, Bright's was a customer magnet that drew tens of thousands of shoppers to Lansford. They first came by trolley & then by bus. Other downtown Lansford stores benefited greatly from Bright's presence & promotions--places like Ridge Centre, Silver Furniture, Wenzel's Bakery, Schoenbergers Hardware, Henry's Mens & Boys Shop, Porvaznik's Flowers, Sharpe's New Agency, George & Sue's Restaurant, The Rialto Restaurant, Louie Daniel's Jewelers, & Taub Jewelers to name a few. 

It was a dark day when Bright's pulled out of downtown Lansford & downtown Lehighton to consolidate inside Lehighton's Carbon Plaza Mall. It was a move that ultimately spelled doom for the once proud coal region retailer. 

Bridal Dance: Also known as the "Dollar Dance". Popular at Coal Region weddings, everyone takes a turn dancing with the bride and contributes a dollar or more as a gift for the newlyweds. Sometimes a donation will buy you a shot of whiskey. This is an Eastern European tradition. 

bring, bring-gingg: as in what are taking, bringing with you.

"Can you bring me bolio over my kuzzints house?"

brogue: a heavy shoe or work boot that reaches to the ankle. The dictionary defines brogue as a "stout coarse shoe worn formerly in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands". This may be why an Irish accent is referred to as a "brogue". This type of shoe is also called a "brogan". Probably the same derivation.

DID YOU KNOW? The word "brogue" was originally a very unkind and derogatory word?  It meant the person spoke English so badly it sounded as if the person had a shoe in his/her mouth, which is why my grandmother cried in anquish when I called her "brogue" beautiful. To say someone "spoke English with a brogue" was a nasty comment, used primarily by the English to insult the Irish. Unfortunately today, most people think they are referring to the Irish lilt when they use the term "brogue;" instead they are historically wrong.

AWARENESS: Some dictionaries give other definitions of brogue as "an Irish accent". The etymology says from the idea that unfamiliar features of pronunciation must be the result of a physical impediment of the tongue.

brudder: as in referencing your brother or a close friend, similar to how we use this word today.

"I asked my brudder fer some money but he dint have none."

brung: usually this is the past tense of bring. 

"I brung it wit me".

BTs: Anyone whoever lived in Butler Township call the Police, the BTs.

"Hide your kortz, it's the BTs!"

Buck two-eighty: slang term to describe an unspecified or unknown amount of money.

"How much did that cost ya? Oh, about a buck two-eighty."

bucketaday: The small, coal fueled water heaters that never stayed lit. Comes from the idea that for a bucket of coal a day one could provide sufficient hot water for cleaning and bathing.

bucket of cheer: A basket of assorted alcoholic beverages (beer, whiskey, etc). Very popular in my house hold. Oftentimes  it was used as a raffle prizes.

buddy me: accompany me somewhere - but usually to play the lottery.

 "buddy me to nesq; I need ta play da numbers."

bugger: mischievous or bad person. This comes from Irish and English, to whom this is another word for sodomizer, (not a joke). You are sodmozing someones happiness if you a bugger. In the coal region this term was normal especially calling misbehaving children buggers.

"Matt stop being a bugger to da Pastor" 😂

buggy: a grocery cart at a supermarket. To this day, my mom still calls all grocery carts buggies and confused her grand babies

"We was upda Ack-a-me and every buggy' was broken"

Bull Run: located just outside of Seek, between Seek and Tamaqua

bum a ride: to hitchhike or request a ride somewhere, usually tamaqua or lehighton. This word is still used in the coal region and nationally as well. 

"How'dja get to Jamesway? We bummed a ride from Mikey."

da Bunker: referred to as Shamokin's "Bunker Hill". It was the highest place in town, with a good view of the culm banks.

Burma Road: the road between Morea and St. Clair. The name derives from the desolate and winding of the road combined with the fact that the far end outside of St. Clair always looked like it was bombed out due to strip mining." Some would say it was named by World War II veterans returning from the Burma campaign. The Burma road was a main supply route between China and Southeast Asia).

Burnie: often referred to things that are hot and spicy (burning). 

"Boy, dat My Place chili is burnie!"

Bush: always referred to as the  woods. It was usually code word for kids who planned to do some drinkin'. (see also Bush Party)

 "What are yez doin tonight? Were gettin some kortz and goin upda bush."

Bush party: A beer drinking party in the woods.

"Dat bush party behind gint'er field is da night"

Butt: often used interchangeably with the word friend or referring to someone else, as in you. Often used as "Ho Butt!" when calling out to someone. "Yo" meaning "you". "Ho" short for "Hello".

"Yo butt, hand me dat hammer." 

Butterene: Grandmas would use this word interchangeabley with margarine, oleo. When you read cook books featured on this website, you may see this term used.