Butteisms

Butte has a language all its own.

Howshegoin?
A term used as a salutation.
Referred to as “The Butte Salute.”
Jeetyet?
A term used to ask the question “Did you eat yet?”
Pasty
Pronounced “pass-tee” not “pace-tee”
Small pastry pie with a savory filling of meat, potatoes and onion. Usually eaten with ketchup, gravy, or both.
Tap ‘er Light
A parting remark (like a goodbye) with its roots in Butte’s mining heyday.
A warning to tap a load of dynamite with caution.
Gweet
To “go eat”.
Howz yer mom and them?
‘Nuff said.
Ya’s
Plural of ‘ya’
Most likely a contraction of ‘you guys’
-Submitted by Kacie

Submit Your Own: Using our handy form!

8 Comments »

  1. the Big Sky Blog » Blog Archive » “Hyper-Local” Said,

    February 20, 2006 @ 3:20 pm

    [...] Some of you may be familiar with my Great Falls blog, called GreaterFalls.com. It focuses solely on events, people, and news going on in my beloved community of Great Falls. Well, it looks like some folks from Butte are doing the same thing for their community: go say howdy to the Butte Talk blog! They’ve already started a page of “Butte-isms,” which will surely be handy for tourists. Related: also just discovered Mike Able Xray, another Butte blog. by David @ 7:08 am. Category: @Butte   [link] [...]

  2. Shoestring Annie Said,

    March 28, 2006 @ 12:47 pm

    Yous Guys

    Hate it! Heard it only in Denver from the hispanic community (Cholas say “yous guys”) and in Butte!

  3. Mark J. Said,

    April 22, 2006 @ 8:19 pm

    You forgot “Gweet” for go eat

  4. jules Said,

    April 28, 2006 @ 10:14 am

    Howz yer mom and them?

  5. Unknown_User77 Said,

    June 19, 2006 @ 1:30 am

    I thought the “Butte salute” was something else entirely….

  6. Kathy Harrington Huston Said,

    July 6, 2006 @ 9:29 am

    Meecha at the M&M ( — is there another in all the world?)

  7. Jools Said,

    December 21, 2006 @ 5:29 pm

    “youse guys” is Irish slang. Brought to Butte by the Irish Immigrants. Still used in Ireland to this day. Check it out in the Irish Slanguage Dictionary. “How sh’ goin’ ” and “How sh’ cuttin’ ” are both greetings and are also both Irish slang. The Butte response to How sh’ goin’ is ‘She goes rail or no rail’, referring to getting the ore out of the mines no matter what.

  8. Sara Rowe Said,

    June 10, 2008 @ 8:18 am

    The response to “Geet yet” is No “dJew” meaning No Did You? At which time the response would be “Twirly” (too early)

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment