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> Boston in particular and New England as a whole has a wide array of words referring to the corner store. The most interesting is spa And of course "spa" is p
by pivo 7y ago
> Boston in particular and New England as a whole has a wide array of words referring to the corner store. The most interesting is spa
And of course "spa" is pronounced "spar".
- alehul 7y agoBostonian born & raised, never heard spa. Feels like an obscure thing WGBH wrote about, and looking at the article, appears it's mostly historical now. We do call our liquor stores "packies," though, which comes from package store. :)
- technothrasher 7y agoAgreed, I've spent my whole life in the Boston area and never heard it called a spa. But water fountains are "bubblas" and those things you put on your ice cream are "jimmies". But now that I think about it, I grew up in a town that, at least forty years ago was rural. The local shop was simply referred to as, "Clyde's" after the man who owned it.
- craz8 7y agoIn the UK, and likely other places, there is actually a chain called Spar. Perhaps they used to be in that area too, and the name stuck even if the business did not?
- bryanrasmussen 7y agothere is a spar chain in Denmark, https://spar.dk/ https://spar.dk/ spar in Danish means "Save", generally used in regards to money. I suppose it is related to the English spare.