by Grammar Girl
When I was researching the regionalism “needs washed,” Bill Bevington recommended that I look into “spendy,” which means “expensive” or “extravagant.” Here’s the resulting map:
Key
A blue pin represents one person who had heard or used “spendy” in the region. A red pin represents one person who has never heard “spendy” in the region. A purple pin represents someone who has heard “spendy,” but only rarely or only from a transplant from another region. n=430+ (Go to the interactive map.) Not shown on the map: one person from the UK, one from Dublin, one from the Philippines, and four from Australia who reported that they don’t hear “spendy” where they live. Apparently “exxy” is used like “spendy” in Australia.
“Spendy” Is Most Common in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest
Clearly, “spendy” is common in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Since those regions are not contiguous, I first investigated whether there was some reason a lot of people would migrate from one region to the other. That was a dead end, but I did discover that both regions were centers of immigration for Norwegians starting in the mid-1800s. According to Wikipedia,”today “55% of Norwegian Americans live in the Midwest, although a large number (21%) live in the Pacific States of Washington, Oregon, and California.”
This is what scientists call correlation and not causation. That the states with a lot of Norwegian immigrants roughly matches the states in which people say “spendy,” doesn’t prove that “spendy” is of Norwegian origin. It’s just a correlation–a hint–but certainly not an answer.
“Spendy” Originated in 1911
The Oxford English Dictionary dates “spendy” back to 1911 and says it originated in the United States, so it seems unlikely its use would be driven by historical immigration trends. On the other hand, it could be that those historical immigration trends mean there are still a lot of people of Norwegian descent in Minnesota and Wisconsin with relatives and friends in Washington and Oregon and vice versa, and “spendy” usage could have spread through these communities.
A Little Help?
I’m mostly guessing to come up with a reason that “spendy” would be distributed as it is. Do any linguists out there want to give me a little help with a comment?
“Spendy” Could Be Spreading
In regions outside the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, a few people mentioned that they had just recently started hearing “spendy” or that teens or hipsters were the only ones saying “spendy.” It was only 5 to 10 people, but that is more than have said such things for other words I’ve investigated, so it seemed worth mentioning.
Data
You can find the complete set of answers on the Grammar Girl Facebook page and on my Google+ page.
Other Maps
Note: When I make the maps at Google Maps, I can see all the pins (which is what you see in the screenshot above); but once I save the map and go back, the entries are split over three screens and I can only see the pins for the results showing on the current screen. If anyone knows how to fix the problem so that visitors to the interactive Google Map can see the complete map, please let me know.
Mignon Fogarty is the author of Grammar Girl’s 101 Words Every High School Graduate Needs to Know.
I find this utterly fascinating! Thanks for your research.
The person I “heard” (it was in writing) say this was from Minneapolis. His parents were immigrants from Turkey (dad) and Hamburg (mom). Sorry that I was too lazy to verify this before.
We use “pricey” in the South for “spendy”
That’s what I use to. But I live in AZ. (Though AZ isn’t a good measure of anything because so many people move here from other places.) My Grandma was from Arkansas, but I don’t know if that is the reason my family uses it.
i’ve also heard/seen “Feeling spendy” similar to “money’s burning a hole in my pocket” – I believe it was in a Jim Northrup book with Ojibwe characters. I note that there’s both strong Scandinavian and first nation ties in the Midwest and the Northwest, but, again, that’d be very speculative.
I’m an Oregonian who uses “spendy” quite frequently, as in “That restaurant is very spendy.” I had no idea that it was not widespread. Is it common in the Pacific NW and Midwest because there are a lot of frugal folks in these areas? That may correspond to the bevy of Norwegians. (I married into a family of Norwegian descent – they are frugal.) I had never heard the other regionalisms you posted – bow up and needs washed. Fascinating!
This is indeed fascinating! Have thought about researching unusual sentence structure? I had relatives from Pennsylvania who would say things like, “Throw the horse over the fence some hay.”
(BTW, I find your podcasts very interesting and helpful.)
When I click on the “interactive map” link, I get a Google map, but with no pins…
I’ve never heard “spendy” being said here in Ohio!
Weird. I get the blank map too. Try this link: http://maps.google.com/maps?msid=217481423436362434756.0004adb8da063ff0a31e4&msa=0&ll=44.715514,-116.630859&spn=42.749004,143.964844&t=m&z=4&vpsrc=6
When it posts, I’ll check it, and if it works, I’ll update the link in the post.
Ok. That didn’t work. How about this? http://maps.google.com/maps?msid=217481423436362434756.0004adb8da063ff0a31e4&msa=0&ll=44.715514,-116.630859&spn=44.231987,89.648438&t=m&vpsrc=0&z=4
The Norwegian ties in the uppermidwest make a lot of sense. My lineage is almost all Norwegian and everyone in the family says “spendy”, and we’re up towards the Canadian boarder in Minnesota. I asked my roommate what she thought about it since she’s from the southern part of the state and she says “spendy” all the time. It’s something I never thought twice about until I saw this. Very neat!
It took three tries, but I finally got a link that will take you to the interactive map: http://g.co/maps/4uv33. I changed the link in the blog post too.
Although these regions are considered contiguous, your map has a large gap of data in the Dakota/Montana/Wyoming region that could be filled with blue pins if there was a large enough sample. This would essentially make the NW and upper Midwest contiguous.
“Spendy” shows up on this glossary of How to Talk LIke a Real Minnesota Resident.
http://www.brownielocks.com/minnesotatalk.html
I’ve heard “spendy.” It’s usually used in a happy context. Like “splurging” on something. “Spendy” things are expensive, indulgent items. Like a handbag, nice restaurant, or high-end nail polish. I’m from Michigan.
I’m an Oregonian and we use “spendy” all the time! I never knew that was a weird thing to say to someone outside the Pacific Northwest.
“garrick_s” on Twitter said, “I believe ‘spendy’ was one of the words popularized by ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ A possible influence?”
Interesting! Has anyone else heard it on “Buffy”?
It’s possible that Buffy has made it more widespread, but I’ve heard this term all my life living in the Pacific Northwest. It sounds like those from the Midwest also have been hearing it for a period of time predating Buffy. I don’t remember hearing it on Buffy, but then I wouldn’t have noticed it as being “odd” in any way.
(I wonder if there are other similar PNW/Midwest dialectic overlaps like this?)
I grew up in Maine and always used “pricey” (“Wow, these socks are pricey. Do you have any 6-packs of tube socks?”) It’s a subtle difference, though “pricey” has a hint of “I’m not going to spend THAT” in it.
I’m Scottish and my father used to talk about ‘spendy pennies’ – not sure if it was a family thing he’d made up, or more generic though.
I like these maps. I would like to see a map about the usage of the word pop vs soda when referring to what I have always called soda. The first time I heard of pop was when I was visiting my husbands’ relatives in Missouri. They referred to it as a treat for kids so I thought it would be some sort of candy. To my surprise out came a sprite. A co-worker of mine said she had the same experience the first time she came to California and someone offered to buy her a soda. She thought she was going to get an ice-cream soda.
Other people have made great “soda” versus “pop” maps: http://popvssoda.com/
I am inclined to agree with Wendy. The two non-contiguous groupings might in fact, be a single and contiguous region. They appear to be separate areas because of the lack of data points coming from the sparsely populated western Great Plains and Rocky Mountain areas. The population base in Wyoming is startlingly low.
This suggestion does not contradict the Norwegian hypothesis. That idea resulted from some excellent research. Like everything else that happens in life, the Spendy phenomenon probably has more than one cause.
I thought this was a great article, worth every spendy penny.
I believe linguists consider the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest separate regions. Jonathan Owen (@ArrantPedantry on Twitter) sent me a link to this useful dialect map: http://members.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionaryclassic/figures/dialectsUS.gif
I live in Minneapolis/St. Paul and hear “spendy” frequently. But I grew up in Southern Minnesota and also went to college in Northern Minnesota but never heard it there. Personally, I dislike “spendy.” I say “pricey.”