Carryout

 

Say What?

 

My husband and I  bought some heavy items, which the clerk packed inside a box. By the end of her shift, she must have been exhausted from talking to people, but she politely smiled at us and said, “Y’ant a carryout?” (Contraction of you and want, pronounced yahnt.)

Neither of us knew what she was talking about. Finally, after she repeated her sentence, my husband told her no.

I told a family member about this conversation. He asked me, “What should she have said?”

I told him, “She could have said, ‘Do you want help carrying this out?’ ”

He laughed. “Why use seven words when you can say it in three?”

Research reveals that there is a hillbilly slang word, y’ant, which is not in standard dictionaries yet. It is usually follow by to, as in y’ant to, meaning do you want to.

Carry out or take out can mean the act of taking something out of a store or restaurant, but carry out does not usually refer to a person.

The good news is that if we return to that store and go to that checker’s register, we’ll know what she means. Now you know.