What is “Charlestonese”? “Charlestonese” is the name of the unique southern dialect spoken by Charlestonians given by News and Courier journalist Ashley Cooper, in his column, “Doing the Charleston.” Ashley Cooper was in fact Frank Gilbreth Jr., who was born in New Jersey and moved to Charleston as a young man. Gilbreth began publishing “Charlestonese” words in his column, and locals wrote in to make recommendations on additional “Charlestonese” words for the column. After a while, the News and Courier compiled all these words into a dictionary entitled, Lord Ashley Cooper’s Dictionary of Charlestonese, which the News and Courier sold for 25 cents a copy. Below are some of our favorite “Charlestonese” words.

COINED – Humane, i.e., “He was always coined to animals.”

FLOW – What you stand on in a house.

POACH – A verandah.

HONE – Something on an auto that you blow.

MOW – An additional quanitity.