Regional sayings

[Sharnita]

"none of your beeswax" is common around here, too.

[hobish]

I grew up in the Rocky Mountain region of the US and had never heard this till I moved to the Northeast. When someone makes a mistake, they say "my bad." And I had a friend from Michigan who said that where she lived, they didn't say "my bad" but they said "my bag" instead, when they were correcting themselves.

Having grown up in the northeast and then moving to the Rocky Mountain region, I never noticed that one...but now I'm going to see if people don't say it here (because I'm oh so far from you ). I grew up saying it so I never paid attention for people not saying it...challenge accepted!

I will be interested to hear the results. I am in the Northeast and had no idea "my bad" was regional. I have heard (seen?) people on here complaining that it is rude; but i have always thought it to be a handy little phrase. I also kind of thought it originated or was at least popularized by the TV show "Martin" so shows what i know 

[Mental Magpie]

I grew up in the Rocky Mountain region of the US and had never heard this till I moved to the Northeast. When someone makes a mistake, they say "my bad." And I had a friend from Michigan who said that where she lived, they didn't say "my bad" but they said "my bag" instead, when they were correcting themselves.

Having grown up in the northeast and then moving to the Rocky Mountain region, I never noticed that one...but now I'm going to see if people don't say it here (because I'm oh so far from you ). I grew up saying it so I never paid attention for people not saying it...challenge accepted!

I will be interested to hear the results. I am in the Northeast and had no idea "my bad" was regional. I have heard (seen?) people on here complaining that it is rude; but i have always thought it to be a handy little phrase. I also kind of thought it originated or was at least popularized by the TV show "Martin" so shows what i know 

So far, nothin'.  I used it once and the other person didn't bat an eyelash.  I'm going to ask her the next time I see her, though, because she has lived in Colorado all of her life.

[Sharnita]

I tend to think "my bad" is more urban than regional.

[Mental Magpie]

I tend to think "my bad" is more urban than regional.

I grew up in a town of 1,000 people; definitely not just an urban thing.

[Bluenomi]

I was chatting with a gal from Oklahoma and was about to say something about the weather in her "neck of the woods." Then I realized she didn't live where there were or ever had been a forest, and didn't know if it would confuse her.

Do people use that phrase in non-woodsy areas?

Oh yes,  'neck of the woods' is generic American.  Whether or not trees are present, you know it means the place where you live. 

We never have quite figured out how woods have a neck but, who really cares?  it's fun to say. 

I'd say it's just pretty generic. I know plenty of Aussie who use it.

[Redsoil]

I do wonder if the "my bad" is a mangulation (ha!) of the English translation for "mea culpa".  ("My fault" or "my mistake".)  Possible?

[cabbageweevil]

I'd never encountered the expression "my bad", before discovering the Internet. Had thus imagined that it was pure "Net-speak", and quite recently come into being. Various recent posts inform me otherwise.  To the best of my knowledge, it was unused and unknown here in the UK, before the Net era.

[Mental Magpie]

I do wonder if the "my bad" is a mangulation (ha!) of the English translation for "mea culpa".  ("My fault" or "my mistake".)  Possible?

I always assumed as such, myself, but now am going to try to find actual evidence to support it.

[Free Range Hippy Chick]

Does anyone else refer to an umbrella as a bumbershoot?  My mother called them that and I've never heard it anywhere else.  Of course, my mother had a myriad of unusual expressions.

Not a bumbershoot, but a bumberstalk - my father called it that and I always assumed it was a made up word and never thought to ask where it came from. Now I look it up and I find http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bumbershoot . I'm not sure that I believe it, but fairly obviously a bumbershoot is a little one (pocket folding umbrella?) and a bumberstalk is a big one (golf umbrella?)

Another one to throw into the mix: when I have to put up with something unpleasant because it simply can't be helped, I have to thole it. Anybody else do that?

[PastryGoddess]

I do wonder if the "my bad" is a mangulation (ha!) of the English translation for "mea culpa".  ("My fault" or "my mistake".)  Possible?

I would say you are probably right.  my bad (at least in MD/DC) is used to take the blame for doing something wrong.  I remember starting to use it around middle school which would be about 15 years ago. 

[Outdoor Girl]

^  That is how my nephews use it.

[Anniissa]

I'd never encountered the expression "my bad", before discovering the Internet. Had thus imagined that it was pure "Net-speak", and quite recently come into being. Various recent posts inform me otherwise.  To the best of my knowledge, it was unused and unknown here in the UK, before the Net era.

I think the phrase was pretty much popularised by the film "Clueless" and then by Buffy the Vampire Slayer - that's certainly how I and many others I know came across the phrases as it was definitely unknown in my part of the UK before that.

[Danika]

Another one to throw into the mix: when I have to put up with something unpleasant because it simply can't be helped, I have to thole it. Anybody else do that?

I've never heard that. How does one pronounce that? Just th like in "throw" and ole rhyming with hole? Most of the folks I know use the slang "suck it up." I'm not sure of the derivation of "suck it up" and I'm not sure I want to know. 

[Free Range Hippy Chick]

Another one to throw into the mix: when I have to put up with something unpleasant because it simply can't be helped, I have to thole it. Anybody else do that?

I've never heard that. How does one pronounce that? Just th like in "throw" and ole rhyming with hole? Most of the folks I know use the slang "suck it up." I'm not sure of the derivation of "suck it up" and I'm not sure I want to know. 

Yup. Thole to rhyme with hole. According to Merriam Webster it's derived from Old English tholian and is very old but now only used in 'the corners of England's northern dialects' but it's still in use in Scotland and Ulster.