Translation Tuesday: The Pocketbook

So, I was out for a fun night of shopping and girl talk last Thursday with my friend Rachel when this week’s Translation Tuesday came up. A cute little street downtown that is full of boutiques and local restaurants has a cool night out each December to promote shopping local during the holiday season, so Rach and I were in a store jam packed with people and I fell in love with this adorable garnet purse and I called Rach over to see it… but she calls them something else: pocket books.

Never in all the time I lived in the North did I hear them called a pocket book. They are a purse, a handbag, a shoulder bag. Occasionally I have heard them called by their style: clutch, hobo, half-moon. Or even by brand… Coach, Louis Vuitton, Kate Dooney and Burke, or Vera Bradely (that is a whole other topic on a blog about that South). But never until I moved down here did I hear them called a pocketbook AND on a regular basis. Actually, for some reason every time I hear Rach say pocketbook I usually think she is talking about her wallet. Seriously, we have been friends for eleven years and I still think she means her wallet every time she says it… you’d think I’d adjust at some point to the language! So… what do you call that contraption that women carry their wallet, phone, I-phone, chap stick, tissues, and hand sanitizer in?