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Tennis shoes? Really?
- Thread starter Deleted member 1726
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I'm from RI and it wasn't until I went to college that I realized most people don't use the term bubbler. Drinking fountain sounds too fancy and water fountains are those things in the mall you throw coins in. Not to mention all the other weird terms we have like cabinets and pizza strips.
About the topic though, it's sneakers. Tennis shoes just sounds funny.
It's not just the U.S. I'm French and we call them "chaussures de tennis" (literally tennis shoes). Deal with it, OP.
I think tennis shoes or the language equivalent is common around the world. I've heard it in many countries.
I've lived in every US time zone and it's always been tennis shoes. Hawaii is the exception in that everyone here wears "slippahs" (flip flops).
I've lived in every US time zone and it's always been tennis shoes. Hawaii is the exception in that everyone here wears "slippahs" (flip flops).
I refer the honourable gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago.
That's one of several possible explanations. There is no consensus.
See how you feel about "bubbler" I feel about hoagie - if you want another weird regionalism.
It's kind of a one word blend... when I was a kid (growing up in Illinois), I thought they were called "tennershoes", because "tennis shoes" didn't make any sense to me because nobody I knew played tennis.
This is not the real thing to shame Americans over, calling soft drinks "soda" as a slang is just so weird to me. What year is this? 1950?
What? Do you just call them soft drinks in casual conversation or something?
That's like the weirdly robotic scientific industry term for soda. However I can agree "pop" sounds like something straight outta the '50s.
i've never heard or never met any person that says tennis shoes ever.. and I live in California.
I always thought tennis shoes came first, and sneakers were kind of an evolution of them. So I call tennis shoes "tennis shoes" and sneakers "sneakers."
I call Chuck Taylors "Chuck Taylors."
I call Chuck Taylors "Chuck Taylors."
This is very strange to me. For the people who just call everything "tennis shoes", what do you call actual tennis shoes? As in trainers that are built to play tennis in specifically?
Maybe this is just because I've played tennis my whole life but tennis shoes means something separate than sneakers/trainers/running shoes to me. Tennis shoes are typically built with better lateral support since you mainly move side to side in tennis
Maybe this is just because I've played tennis my whole life but tennis shoes means something separate than sneakers/trainers/running shoes to me. Tennis shoes are typically built with better lateral support since you mainly move side to side in tennis
As someone from a "pop" region, "soda" sounds way more ancient alongside soda parlors and the old fashioned style of soda fountains. Soda sounds like you walked up to a man at a bar with a curled mustache and a red striped shirt who put syrup into a glass cup and sprayed a tube of fizz on top of it.
It seems users of one term think the other term sounds really old, haha. I don't have a problem with pop though, just sounds like a boomer word for soda. Probably a big part of it was my grandparents (born in the 40s) always said pop.
edit: From a brief search about the terms and their usage, they're both similarly ancient. Earliest known usage of pop is the very early 1800s and earliest known for soda appears to be the very late 1700s. They may have even both just split from the term "soda-pop."
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Soda makes more sense though. Soda is another term for Sodium Bicarbonate which gives soft drinks their fizz.
It's fucking stupid. I grew up with sneakers in NJ and I'll allow gym shoes in Chicago, but there's no way in hell I'll refer to something as "tennis shoes" when tennis has absolutely nothing to do with anything.
While I am surprised to find out its a purely northeastern thing to use the term 'sneakers' - I am more fascinated that there are two separate pockets of people who call water fountains... bubblers?
This one actually killed me.
I'm in California (lived in the Bay Area and SoCal), who the fuck says Drinking Fountain??
yeah I never used Hoagie but it's one I'm aware of. 'Hero' is the only one that I had never really heard of until I was an adult.
Tennishoes are like joggers.
Sneakers are like Dan Aykroyd.
Trainers are like when you go on a diet.
Kicks are like the other side of Kats.
Sneakers are like Dan Aykroyd.
Trainers are like when you go on a diet.
Kicks are like the other side of Kats.
As a Philadelphian I am totally capable of accepting that we have some unique words for stuff (like hoagie, as mentioned before) but learning that apparently most of the country regularly calls sneaks "tennis shoes" is absolutely blowing my mind. Like, I never see them referred to as "tennis shoes" anywhere. Hell, I just went on Nike.com and you can check the "SNKRS Launch Calendar" and then I went to Adidas.com and clicked through to the first random shoe I could find (https://www.adidas.com/us/ozweego-shoes/EE7008.html) and it refers to them as "sneakers."
Like I feel like I'm just being trolled by this and no one actually says "tennis shoes" because I just don't even see it anywhere.
Like I feel like I'm just being trolled by this and no one actually says "tennis shoes" because I just don't even see it anywhere.
