photo by Ty Smith
Local blogger Curt Wootton, better known as Pittsburgh Dad, addresses a crowd at the record-breaking cookie dunk event in Market Square on Oct. 14. Wootton is a supporter of the petition to add ‘jagoff’ to the dictionary.
My Big Fat Greek Gyro shop owner, Jerry Harris, said “jagoff” was like a second name for him growing up.
Local celebrities Mikey and Big Bob of 96.1 KISS only use the term when callers act like, well, “jagoffs.”
On the other hand, Curt Wootton, the man who created the viral blog known as Pittsburgh Dad, uses it in a variety of ways and loves that there is a petition to get one of his favorite words into the dictionary.
All of these men, along with the owners of Three Guys Optical Center in Downtown, are supporting a website and petition to put one of their favorite Pittsburghese words into the dictionary.
“The word ‘jagoff’ only comes into play when I really have to use it, and when I do, you know it’s serious,” Mikey of 96.1 said.
The word “jagoff” is just one of the many quirky words that native Pittsburghers use.
The website yajaggoff.com has created an online petition to get “jagoff” put into Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
According to The Dictionary of American Regional English, a “jagoff” is a person who is irritating because of being inept or stupid. It can be especially powerful when you add the Pittsburghese dialect to the word.
Pittsburghers’ dialect ranges from stressing the long “o” sound in words such as “home” and “frozen” to the way that they structure their sentences. Pittsburghers have even created their own vocabulary in addition to “jagoff”, with words such as “nebby,” “slippy,” “pop” and the infamous “yinz.”
A classic Pittsburgher phrase goes a little something like, “Are yinz goin’ dahntahn? Yinz better be careful — it snowed las’ night, it’s a lil’ slippy aht.”
Three Guys Optical Center will make a donation to the Pittsburgh Emergency Medicine Foundation and provide a coupon for each person who signs the petition to get Pittsburgh’s original word in the dictionary.
Harris is a local from Bloomfield who thinks that “jagoff” should be in the dictionary because it’s not the only bad word to ever be put in.
“Yeah, I think they should put it in there because there are way worse words in the dictionary than the word ‘jagoff,’ so why not,” Harris said .
The negative connotation of the word “jagoff” makes sophomore dance major Walter Apps not want to sign the petition.
“It’s just more name calling and doesn’t need to be put in the dictionary. We have enough negativity in the world, so why put more into a book that people use to educate themselves with,” Apps said.
Mikey and Big Bob see nothing wrong with the word being put into the dictionary.
“The dictionary used to be serious, but now anything that’s popular is in it like ‘selfie’ and ‘swag,’ so why not ‘jagoff,’” Mikey said at Giant Eagle’s world record breaking cookie dunk event held in Market Square Oct. 14.
“Just sneak it on in there. Who even uses the dictionary anymore,” Big Bob joked.
There are different ways to use the word “jagoff,” according to Wootton, who also made an appearance at Giant Eagle’s cookie dunk event.
“There are two different versions, there’s ‘jagoff’ which is the meaner version and there’s ‘jago,’ which is the endearing version that I call my friends. If I go and say ‘jagoff,’ that means I’m really mad,” Wootton said.
Curt Wootton started making videos of himself back in 2011, impersonating his own Pittsburgh dad. He uses the Pittsburghese that he grew up hearing in his videos and says classic things that most Pittsburghers think and do.
“If you can put words like Cleveland or Baltimore in the dictionary, there ain’t no way that we can’t have our own words in there too. Geez, oh man,” Wootton said.
