Posted in D.C.
July 31, 2017
11 Phrases That Will Make You Swear Washingtonians Have Their Own Language
DC has a culture all of its own and often that means, it’s own language. If you’re visiting or maybe just moved here, these 9 DC phrases might clue you in to what Washingtonians are discussing.
The Hill is not an actual hill. It’s what most people call the Capitol building.
When people in DC say "the Mall," they are not referring to a shopping mall. It’s almost always the National Mall. If someone in DC is going to a shopping mall, they’ll refer to it by its name like "Pentagon City" or "Tysons."
Most Washingtonians just understand the general layout of metro lines and will use it towards details for where they live.
The beltway has nothing to do with belts. The Beltway is the name name for I-495. DC is inside the Beltway and Maryland and Virginia (and the rest of the country) is outside the beltway.
Cised is a DC slang term for excited. If someone is "cised," it just means they are excited.
It does not mean tapping your feet or anything else like that. Beat Your Feet is a form of dance that is done to go-go music.
DC is split into quadrants and if we don’t explain where we are going by our Metro line then we’ll explain it by the quadrant.
Nova means Northern Virginia. If someone is going to Nova, they are going across the bridge into Northern Virginia.
Ovi is Alex Ovechkin, the beloved Capitals hockey star who is frequently spotted out and about town.
An English basement is an apartment on the lowest floor of a building like a townhouse or row house. They are usually below ground level and many people often rent them out.
These are not random abbreviations but stand for George Washington University and American University, just two of the colleges here in DC.
So, did we miss your favorite DC phrase? If you knew all of these, see if you do any of these 13 things odd things that only Washingtonians do!
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