Guessing What These US Southwestern Words Mean

it comes from some sort of mythological story in which a storm god plays the banjo in order to feed his children [Music] hello i'm lawrence and i'm on a quest to uncover all of the memos that britain and america lost in the pond and one of those memos pertains to words specifically words i don't know the meaning of because i didn't grow up in america and even more specifically particular regions of america today i'm going to tackle the south west not literally it's not rugby now as this series has developed i've noticed people in the comments saying things like i've lived in this region for over 400 years and i've never heard any of these words firstly that's not my fault and secondly when we're talking about regional words it doesn't mean that everybody within that region uses them all day every day they might only be used let's say by people in a particular professional field or a part of that region that you just don't happen to live in but what these words usually have in common is that when they are used they're used in theory with more frequency in the stated region than anywhere else in the united states and for the southwest in particular i'm told that today's words come with a decidedly spanish flavour and this has always been a huge interest to me because in britain we don't really have a ton of spanish influence on british english in america even here in the midwest you don't have to go too far before you see a mexican restaurant or instructions that are in spanish so i'm going to be very interested to see how much of this list i actually know especially as somebody who used to pronounce paella as paella british anyway without further ado let's guess the meaning of these words that are found predominantly in america's south west okay first up is haboob and haboob sounds like something that would get me demonetized if i say it wrong it is a word i may have seen before i think but i don't know the meaning of it it's not something that i use every day it could be a verb it could be a noun don't know i mean that's probably true for most of these i think a haboob is it's when you've made a bit of a mistake you've you've made an error as undoubtedly i have with this definition so it turns out i'm entirely wrong a haboob which is in fact an arabic word is a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current we we don't get dust storms in chicago arroyo i talked about this one in a previous video i think a while back and it was some sort of natural phenomena but i can't remember exactly what that phenomena was an arroyo is is something to do with the aridness is that a word of the south west but what is it i can't remember i wish lawrence from a year ago or whenever i did that video was right here right now because he'd be able to tell me you know there'd also be paradoxical issues with that so i don't want to get into it but i think an arroyo is some sort of ravine this is terrible let's let's listen to lawrence from a year or so ago well there's one other type of phenomenon that while not exclusive to the united states it's only found in arid regions of the world that are similar to america's south west i'm talking about arroyo an arroyo is a kind of temporary dry creek or gulch and they often come about after a series of flash floods and as you've probably guessed it's taken from the spanish word arroyo in spanish arroyo just means any small river and it's quite comforting to hear that because if an arroyo magically showed up in the united kingdom i think we just call it a stream or an english puddle and for the south west in particular i'm told that today's words come with a decidedly spanish flavor this is hardly surprising of course given that the south west which for the purposes of this video comprises texas new mexico arizona colorado utah nevada and california is heavily influenced by spanish or mexican culture and boasts the highest concentration of spanish ancestry in the united states adobe i mean that provides photoshop and premiere pro but adobe in this sense isn't it some sort of um mudding for making housing it's like mud houses isn't it adobe is that even how you pronounce it that's how i pronounce the company name adobe is a building material made from the earth and organic materials adobe is spanish for mudbrick and in some english-speaking regions of spanish heritage such as the southwestern united states the term is used to refer to any kind of earth and construction i know the term snow bird because it's often used to describe people who move from sort of colder climates in the u.s or even canada right down to the south it's often associated with florida i don't know much about it it's usually associated with senior citizens i think but that definition has begun to change over time yes i got one right it is admittedly one that isn't from spanish corrido i it sounds to me like a type of food and i imagine that somewhere along the way there's going to be food items on this list corrido sounds like it is but i don't know what uh probably something to do with jalapenos corrido is a style of burrito that has inside it all all of everything it's like an everything bagel just in burrito form you should never eat that because it sounds like it would be terrible for you corrido is not a type of food it is in fact a popular narrative metrical tale and poetry that forms a ballad the songs are often about oppression history daily life for criminals the vacaro lifestyle and other socially relevant topics not only were they widely popular during the mexican revolutions of the 20th century but also in the southwestern american frontier as it was a part of the development of the new mexico music style where it later influenced western music oh my how do i say this one chiltepin chiltepin chiltepin chiltepin we'll go with that chiltepin is a word i don't think i've seen before and i certainly don't know the meaning of it off the top of my head i'm trying to think of it being used in a sentence is it a verb or is it a noun or does it even matter at this point chill teppen is it's it's an activity you do it with your feet i'm thinking of tapping which is english for tapping your feet so this makes no sense but it's all i've got right now all right it's all i've got so i am chilling and tapping my feet chill tapping lauren you're an idiot what does that what what does this word mean it is a type of capsicum that is native to southern north america and northern south america apparently chiltepin was named the official native pepper of texas in 1997. pazole's am i saying that right this one does sound like a food and if it isn't i'm pamela anderson maybe this is like a seafood dish that has hot spicy things in it and peppers and a lot of other things and that's what they call it pazole i suppose just put me out my misery what is a pizzole well it is a food item so i think i deserve at least half a point for that and it is a traditional soup or stew from mexican cuisine did they put seafood in it then i get three quarters of a point no they don't typically it will have pork or chicken and can be seasoned and garnished with shredded lettuce or cabbage no need chili peppers onion garlic radishes avocado salsa and limes so i'm getting here that it's mexican but is it served in any particular areas of the south western u.s do we know let me know if you've had this soup and whether you live in one of the southwestern states ah beaut now this definitely isn't a food item unless you're richard dreyfuss because the word butte has come up in a previous video or two and it's a geological formation that does that and then it sort of does that goes kind of flat at the top and then does that down the sides so since i'm thinking of close encounter of the third kind an example would be devil's tower yep in geomorphology a butte is an isolated hill with steep often vertical sides and a small relatively flat top mesa is i thought they were similar to butte if not the same thing if they're not the same thing as buttes how do they differ from them this is not a conversation i ever thought i'd have with anyone much less thousands of people so thanks for bearing with me on this a mesa as opposed to a view is a beaut but bigger a mesa is an isolated flat-topped elevation ridge or hill which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpment and stands distinctly above a surrounding plane it still sounds like a beaut buttes versus mesas this is the debate we're having today what is the difference here we go buttes are smaller landforms than mesas i think i win hatch chili this is where i use my ridiculous english intuition and just assume this is a bowl of chili that has egg in it because eggs hatch this sounds awful so don't ever make that dish or it could have chicken in it because when eggs hatch you get a baby chicken this is sounding even worse i'm just i'm digging my own grave but i honestly don't have any guesses outside of that because i'm an idiot oh i was thinking of chili wrong it's a chili pepper and it's a chili pepper from the usa of new mexico and hatch chili is a label for new mexico chili grown in the hatch valley in and around hatch new mexico norteno it this rings a bell but i can't really say why but i am interested by the first four letters there because that could denote some kind of etymology to do with the north that's just something you often see with words that begin nor nordic is a good example my linguistic brain is telling me that that's where it comes from maybe it's a mexican or southwestern way of referring to the northern united states i that can't be right norteno is indeed the spanish word for northern you've got to give me half a point there and i i do mean only half a point because as it pertains to its use in the southwest united states norteno is a genre of regional mexican music it was developed in the late 19th century as a mixture between local mexican music and austrian czech origin folk music this sounds amazing menudo well let's let's take stock of what we've had so far we've had food we've had rock formations storms and we've also had performance-based things so maybe menudo is something that sort of mixes all of those it comes from some sort of mythological story in which a storm god plays the banjo in order to feed his children that is definitely not correct is it that's what is so menudo is it is a traditional mexican soup and apparently an annual menudo festival is held in santa maria california and since 1996 the menudo bowl is an annual event in laredo texas it's made with cow's stomach in broth with a red chili pepper base and usually includes hominy lime onions and oregano oregano and the last is who do who do who do i think i am i don't know what hoodoo would be in this context i mean obviously it rhymes with voodoo but i don't know if it's got any connection to that if it does it would suggest magic of some kind but once again you know i've been tripped up by a lot of these words so whatever i think it is it's not going to be therefore i don't think that it's a food item with meat in it and you know chili peppers and some sort of tortilla i don't think that i absolutely don't think that because that's reverse psychology if i don't think it it will be it's not it's a tall thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badlands i didn't know there was a word for that until today we don't have many hoodoos in chicago although i suppose you could make the case for the cs tower but i've always wanted to see some up close that's it for this embarrassing episode let me know in the comments below if you live in the south west and if you've heard of any of these words i'm laurence brown you can follow me on twitter at lostinthepondus and don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that my videos don't get lost in the pond as ever a haboob size shout out to my patrons who make these videos possible if you would like to become a patron of lost in the pond you can do so today at patreon.com lost in the pond until the next video goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Lost in the Pond

Views: 62,213

Keywords: Laurence Brown, America, southwest, spanish americans

Id: jefcJqIYL0s

Length: 12min 51sec (771 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2022