Is saying "crank" your car just a southern thing?

[Lex]

Or do people in other places say it too?

(I'm assuming it is a hold-over term from when you had to actually get out and crank your car engine in the front.)

My housemate insists that only southerners use the term.

:shrug:

[xray s]

1. we say it up here in Chicago

"I was cranking the car for 10 minutes and the damn thing just wouldn't turn over"

[Lex]

3. Aha! So not just a regional thing!

I knew it!

In fact, I think I've heard characters on TV say it, so I *knew* it couldn't just be a southernism--of course we HAVE plenty of those, but just not THIS one.

Thanks! :hi:

[barb162]

18. lived in Chicago my entire life; never heard it

[xray s]

19. northside or southside?

[barb162]

23. both, born N. side; lived on s and n sides

[xray s]

25. In Portage Park, in the winter, we crank the motor till she starts

sometimes you crank it too long and you kill the battery. Then you get a jump and wait for a while, until the guy helping you says "try cranking it now"

:)

So...given your checkered pedigree...is it Cubs or Sox?

[barb162]

33. Sox more than the Cubs, but I don't really follow either team

as I have a low pain threshhold

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. we sometimes say it in NH

usually the old yankees use the term

[Lex]

4. I think it's falling out of the language here

in the South too, although you still hear it.

Have you ever heard anyone say "cut" the lights out? People say that ALL the time here (in NC).

[mitchum]

9. My wife says my use of "cut" is the only indicator that I'm southern

well, that and those "incidents" at family reunions :)

[Lex]

12. LOL!

"Cut" the lights off.

"Cut" the TV on.

"Cut" the music down.

Where the hell did that come from anyway? (The "crank" origin is pretty easy to figure out.)

[mitchum]

24. I honestly don't know...

"cut" was always used around me, and it was never a media recognised indicator of "southerness", so it was a really long time before I realized that it was a regionalism. Just sounded natural.

[CO Liberal]

26. My Second Wife Was From Pennsylvania

She used to say to "outen" the lights.

[Lex]

27. Hmmm . . . we definitely don't have that in the south

as far as I know.

But "outen" gets the point across, I suppose.

[CO Liberal]

30. Some of Her Other Expressions Made Less Sense

Before a meal if there were things on the table, she would say to "red off" the table.

If company was coming, she would say to "red up" the living room.

After a meal, dirty dishes were put in "the spigot" (meaning the sink).

And if someone drank the last cup of coffee in the pot, she would say "the coffee is all".

:shrug:

[Maddy McCall]

16. I say "fixing to" all the time.

I've tried to lose that, but I just can't.

Do you draw the bath water, too? :-)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

21. We draw baths in New England too!

:hi:

[mitchum]

22. No, I "run me a tub"

:)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. Ahhhhhhhh..... You're from NH..... How long have people from NH

had this poop fixation? (In my best Freud voice)

:toast:

[Kathy in Cambridge]

20. You NH people are WEEEYID

I have never heard the term crank referring to a car in my life-I immediately think crystal meth!

[qnr]

5. Not particularly popular, but it is used in a lot of places n/t

[mitchum]

6. And doing a lot of crank is no longer just a southern thing :)

[blackcat77]

7. It's "turn over" in Indiana... nt

[Maddy McCall]

8. I live in Mississippi. We "start" the car. We don't "crank" it.

I've heard it before, but very rarely. My depression-era father "starts" the car, so I don't think it's generational.

[Lex]

10. Cars used to be "cranked"

in the front, so at some point probably most people said that.

I hear it in NC frequently, and have heard it in most places in the south.

Maybe Mississippi is the exception.

[Maddy McCall]

11. I know that. But I don't hear people say it here.

[ladjf]

29. I'm from Mississippi. I've heard it both ways. Another word "yonder"

is used mostly in the South, as in "It's over yonder". When I went to school in Michigan I found that they were totally unfamiliar with "yonder".

[Lex]

32. Yeah, I figured it must be in Mississippi too.

No "yonder" in Michigan? That's too bad!

[hickman1937]

14. We say it all the time in the Metro Detroit area

Crank it over(turn the key in the ignition)
Crank it up(start the car)
cranky bastard(guy in the car)

[norml]

15. Nebraskans say, Crank it! Crank it up! Crank that engine! Get it cranking!

I cranked that engine till the battery went dead, and it still wouldn't start.

[gizmo1979]

17. WI. never heard of it.

[guitar man]

28. yeah, but there is an "i" in it

down south. Up north, it's "crank" the car, down south, it's "craink" the car. :)

[short bus president]

31. Oh, no.

"It won't crank" (or the archaic "she won't crank") is universally understood in service stations around the country, if not around the world.

[HawkerHurricane]

34. Heard it here in SoCal...

but San Diego is so full of people from so many places, nothing here is 'regional'.