What Do These Three Midwest Terms Mean?

Like any vaguely defined region of any country, the Midwest has its own language when it comes to colloquialisms. If you’re a regular reader, you probably live close enough that these terms will be immediately recognizable, but for someone new to the area they might need some explaining. Since I’m originally from the UK and have learned these local linguistic tics myself since I’ve lived in Springfield, I can help give you the insider’s outsider perspective on these terms.

Ope!

I’m going to start with my favorite because it’s immediately the most familiar to me, the awkwardly polite, politely awkward Brit: Ope!

If you’re a born-and-raised Midwesterner, you’re probably already familiar with this. Even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard or even made this exact noise at some point. Squeezing past someone in a narrow office corridor while you’re holding a hot coffee? “Ope!” Almost walking headfirst into someone in the street because you were hypnotized by TikTok? “Ope!” The term is something of a universal sound that combines “oops,” “sorry” and “excuse me” into a single, useful shorthand that's deeply ingrained in the way Midwesterners courteously irritate each other.

Midwest Nice

Midwest nice is a specific friendliness that anyone who has spent time here will immediately recognize: People greeting you as they pass you in street, starting up conversations with strangers waiting in the same line, or traffic coming to a standstill at a four-way stop because everyone is too polite to be the one to go first. It’s a natural, easy and wholesome niceness that makes you feel like you belong.

The Midwest Goodbye

Ending on an appropriate note: the Midwest goodbye. You might have heard of “the Irish Goodbye” before—when a person leaves a social gathering without saying goodbye, just slipping out before anyone notices. The Midwest goodbye is the opposite: When someone is getting ready to leave, but keeps talking and remembering “one more thing” they forgot to mention, and is enjoying socializing too much to actually leave. If you’re wondering how to get someone from the Midwest out of your house more quickly, I’m sorry, you simply can’t. You just need to let the Midwest goodbye play itself out.

Did We Miss Any?

There are plenty more locally-specific terms in southwest Missouri and the surrounding area. Which ones do you think need to be dropped in here? Let us know here or wherever you see this posted on social media with how you use it or what you think it means.