Redneck Lingo in WA: How Many of These Words Do Y’all Still Use?

Do we hug trees or do we chug beers? Out here in the Evergreen State, we can do BOTH at the same time! It's a hidden talent you can only find in the Pacific Northwest (especially at Watershed or The Gorge, ha)!

Does anybody else around here besides me say "fixing to", or are my Tennessee roots just finally showing through? What you might call talking like a hillbilly, I simply call it "speaking like I normally do!"

Confession: I've lived here for over twenty years and now whenever I hear my voice on the radio or a playback on a voicemail, I think sound like a tragically hipster redneck! All I need is a manbun and a piece of straw to chew and I'll fit the mood. It's this unique Washington State accent and way of talking that I seem to have developed after living here so long, and I can't get rid of it!

REDNECK LINGO IS ACTUALLY PRETTY COMMON 'ROUND HERE

Do you say things like, "gussied up" when you're putting on an extra layer of makeup and jeans instead of flannel pajama pants to go out to Target instead of The Walmarts? (By the way, if you call it "The Walmart", you might be a redneck.😂)

I blame Blake Shelton for making that dang catchy song in 2013. He's got everybody else saying "'round here" all the time instead of "around here." (My 7th grade English Grammar teacher would have clutched her pearls and winced.) Now, I would expect someone from my hometown (Nashville) to say 'round here, but not on the regular in Washington State!

Other redneck slang I've noticed Washingtonians saying a ton include words that are innocent ways to say "damn" and "hell." (I am not allowed to cuss in front of my mama, so I say a lot of "Dang, Mom, that's crazy!" on the phone when we catch up.)

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One more thing to note: I did not realize saying something difficult is like "herding a bunch of cats" is considered redneck. I say that an awful lot, especially at home: There's only two creatures involved (my child + our family cat) yet the sound of them sounds like a bunch of barn animals as I try to stop them from chasing each other around my tiny apartment. It drives me up the wall, y'all!

I moved all the way from Tennessee to Washington state and officially knew I was living in land of the rednecks when I kept seeing a bunch of dudes posing with their hunt kills as their DATING PROFILE PICTURES. (I have yet to find any woman that is turned on by that in real life, but I digress.)

SEE ALSO: 6 Ways to Tell If You're a Washington Redneck

I've caught people around me saying things I only heard growing up in The South, like reckon, gonna, ain't, y'all, folks, right-as-rain, and "hon!"

Here is the full list of redneck slang words we hear in Washington State.