New Yorkers Stand On Line

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, how’s it going? I’m Anuj. I’m from New York City, and I had a question for you all.

Oh, welcome.

Welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

So, recently, someone at my work who was born and raised in New York brought up a question of whether or not I’d say online, like waiting online versus waiting in line.

I’ve always said waiting in line my whole life, but apparently it’s a thing where some people say online.

Didn’t hear about that and asked him what the background meaning of that was.

And he said it related to Ellis Island where they actually painted lines on the ground.

And people would say waiting online because of that.

And I was wondering if there was any validity or expanded reasoning on top of that.

The thing about the Ellis Island thing, it’s fine.

So many myths and falsehoods come out of Ellis Island as the starting point for so many great American stories.

But I would say there may very well have been lines on the floor that showed you where to stand.

But those lines were used everywhere.

It was a standard thing in public places where there was a lot of line forming to put a line on the floor.

You didn’t stand between lines.

You stood on the line.

Whether or not that’s the source of it, nobody knows.

It’s a plausible theory.

We can just go with it.

But we do know that New Yorkers have been saying online for at least 100 years.

You can find it in newspaper stories as far back as 1914.

I know there’s a story talking about people waiting on line to send their Christmas parcels at the post office.

A classic place where it would be really crowded and having orderly lines would be desirable, right?

You would want people to be on a line so that you knew who was next and where the line began and ended.

But the Ellis Island story, you know, when you hear something about American history being attributed to starting in Ellis Island, it’s one of the American myth factories, you know?

Yeah, it’s pretty romantic.

Yeah, it’s romantic.

And just, you know, fun to say, but it always needs to be investigated.

And you’ve done that by calling us, and there you go.

And Anuj, have you picked up the expression online now?

Absolutely not.

You’re being defiant, right?

Maybe one day I’ll wake up and I’ll start saying it.

I’ve been here for six years so far, and today, like just recently, was like the first time I even heard about that.

What?

Yeah, it’s hard.

Seriously.

Yeah, that’s crazy.

Yeah, the language in New York changes so much.

When I lived there, it was something like 60% of the people who lived in New York were either born in another state or another country.

So it’s hard for those New York language traditions to pass to the incoming people who are so voluminous.

Usually the traditions exist now in the bridge and tunnel people, people from New Jersey and Long Island and Connecticut.

Who knows?

Maybe there’ll be a new New York English before you know it, and we’ll be chronicling that and talking about it on the show.

Cool.

Yeah, thanks for calling.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks a lot.

Take care.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Have a good day.

Bye.

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