Down in the Parish
Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone
Verbal Lore: Folk Speech, slang
English
United States of America
context: to travel south along the Mississippi River
transcript:
“When you travel south down the Mississippi River towards the gulf. Lots of people would say you are going ‘down in the parish.”
Collector Commentary: The term is colloquial language to refer to going south along the river. Using down implies south and parish is the term for county, so by going down in the parish, you are traveling south along the river. It is unique to NO slang, because it is specifically referring to geographic features found only in NO and Southeastern Louisiana.
keywords: New Orleans, Parish, Mississippi River