Guessing What These US West Coast Words Mean

If taking about the animal, yes, it could mean mountain lion. If taking about a woman, it means a lady who romantically gets together with much younger men

I thought “Cougar” was definitely going to be woman who goes after much younger men. Now I want to know the origin story behind this meaning.

I grew up with the word "duff" to mean one's rear end. To use it in a sentence, I'd say, "Get up off your duff and start helping!" Cougar certainly means a big cat native to North America, but the slang version, which is what I thought you were going for in this video, is a woman who has reached middle age who dates younger men.

Considering how Laurence approached the cougar question, I think he is familiar with the slang, and was legitimately unfamiliar with the actual animal. It's a mountain lion to me.

"Gnarly" does not mean "good", it means "intense". Bad things can be "gnarly", as in, "Dude, that wipeout was gnarly!"

I live in Oregon and have almost my whole life, and only recently realized that "spendy" is a regional word! People say it all the time here.

I'm waiting for Laurence to discover that the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon are arid semi-desert climates extremely different than the stereotypical rainy and grey Seattle. I seem to recall he's been to Idaho as well, and southern Idaho is very similar.

"Dank" has an interesting turnaround of meanings. Originally dark, then dark, damp and mildewy, as in "The dank smell of the disused cellar". From there to anything strongly and not particularly pleasantly odoriferous, which was then assigned to a high grade of a vegetable substance not normally eaten in salads. from there it took the meaning of a high grade of anything, and then just generally good.

Having grown up in southern California, I've definitely heard gnarly used in a positive sense, but it's also used to describe quite the opposite, something that's revolting or disgusting.

As an Oregonian, Duff is definitely not used widely. I've gone camping once a month my whole life and never heard duff used like that. That said the rest of the PNW words are used very commonly. The Californian words haven't made it up here though. Very different cultures.

I have lived my entire life in Washington and a term that I have always used and thought everyone knew was "buck." When I was 22 I worked in a pet store and sometimes had to help customers figure out what size dog collar or harness would fit their dog, so I went next door to the craft store and bought a retractable seamstress measuring tape. When I showed to my coworkers, they asked me how much it was and I told them that it was 3 bucks. One of the managers wasn't originally from here and apparently had never heard that word used that way. I don't know why dollars are called bucks or where that use of the word came from, but my whole family uses it.

Native CA millennial and I have heard of (and used) all of the CA referenced words. I also thought that bear claws were pretty ubiquitous but maybe they started here. Also a lot of confusion for the word "dank" which has been a stoner term in use since the mid nineties at least. I always took it to mean dank (as in moist) so that your herbs are moist enough to be "dank" meaning they are that fresh. Also I have been known to combine many of the phrases into a sentence (which I still get teased about by my native NV partner). So you could viably say something like "Yo this June Gloom is hella dank right now, Imma post up with this bear claw before swooping on the cafe spot, yadadamean?" and Californian could probably understand you.

I'm a Californian and we tend to call the puma a mountain lion. At least, in Southern CA. As for 'cougar' we all know it's another term for mountain lion, the word is generally used for an older woman dating or looking to date a much younger man.

Animal Cougar = Mountain Lion. In society, it's a woman who's about 10+ years older than her male lover.

I think when it comes to the west coast you really need to separate California from the Pacific Northwest, there isn't as much sharing of words as you would expect. Also in the Northwest, or at least in Washington a fair number of Canadian words and phrases sneak in, maybe because we get Canadian tv (I've watched around 99% of the Olympics on CBC because of their superior round the clock coverage).

I'm a born and raised Oregonian. I've mostly heard the term Sunbreak by meteorologists on the news, but I hear potato bug, spendy, and cougar frequently. I mostly hear gnarly in reference to really nasty, gag-worthy wounds. I've not heard the term Duff ever.

In my area of California gnarly has a somewhat negative connotation. Someone could say "I saw a gnarly car wreck today" or "look at this gnarly gash on my leg". We typically use it for things so bad you can't look away.

I lived on the Oregon coast for a year where "spendy" was the equivalent of "pricey". But if you think about it, it flips the responsibility. If something is pricey, the other guy is being greedy. If something is spendy but you buy it anyway, it's on you bud.

Native Californian here (grew up in LA but have lived in SF for 22 years), I’ve never heard of a potato bug either. “NoHo” is only really known by LA locals. “June Gloom” is only really used to refer to June in Southern California. What you were witnessing in SF is not just June, it’s the fog that happens in San Francisco pretty much any time of the year but especially in the Summer months (“Fogust”). And even then, it’s often just something that happens in SF and not even the entire Bay Area. And I’ve only ever referred to that cat as a mountain lion.

In the Pacific Northwest, I've never heard the phrase "June Gloom", however, "June-uary" is what we call that weather pattern, as it's essentially January weather in the month of June. Edit: I've been informed below that "June Gloom" may or may not be similar to June-uary