Pop/Soda/Coke

[Natalie Maynor]

Remember the word-of-the-semester project that Bethany introduced
here a couple of years ago?  I was just reading a paper written by
a student whose word was "pop" and thought yall might be interested
in the following excerpt.  I find it interesting in two respects:
(1) the way he seems to use "soda" as a sort of default term even
though he says "coke" is the term used in the South, and (2) his
comment about African Americans.  I had never associated "pop" with
African Americans.  Is he right about that?  (He's a white Mississippian
of typical college age, average student, English-Ed major.)

Here's what he said (after discussing various other uses of "pop"):

"The word pop is used to refer to a soda.  Sodas are known as cokes
in the South.  Even Pepsi is called a coke in the South.  In other
parts of the country, sodas are referred to as pops.  This is short
for soda pop, which takes its name from the sound the drink makes.
I was in the North once for a summer camp and the staff there referred
to all sodas as pops.  When we referred to RC or Pepsi as a coke, they
laughed at us.  Pop is also used to mean a soda by many African
Americans in the South.  Soda cans are called pop-top cans.  When
the top is pulled from a pop the top makes a sound that sounds like
'pop.'"

(Ah, youth.  I bet he doesn't even remember the pre-pop-top days.
I'll have to shatter his illusion by telling him that I heard the
term "pop" from yankees long before I had ever seen a pop-top can.)
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)

PS: His writing style, though not great, is usually at least a little
bit better than this excerpt suggests.