Have you ever been looking for just the right word, only to realize it doesn't exist in the English language? The early 20th century humorist Gelett Burgess created so many words he published his own dictionary. Families regularly use special vocabulary to explain things like that noise Aunt Zelda makes when eating. Today, we're talking with the author Paul Dickson about words and what they reveal about the way we see the world. We're hoping you'll join us too with your own "familisms." (Rebroadcast)
Your Family Vocabulary
Even though today's show is a rebroadcast, you can still be part of the conversation. Tell us about the words your family has invented. What do they mean and when do you use them? Are they recent inventions, or have they survived multiple generations?
In our family the juices around a roast were droozle or sozzle. You might ask for some droozle with your second helping. (I think Dictionary of American Regional English has sossle somewhere, disremember meaning though.) Don't know if I ever knew a difference between 'em, will have to ask sister.
Eggs, when daughter was young, were ahdegahs (AH-dee-gahs)
Knew another family whose daughter insisted ice cream was ambigen (AM-bi-gen).
We use the word "Phinort" to describe when two dogs greet each other in their classic way or when they stick their noses in your crotch. It can be used like: "Quit phinortin'!!"
We have a weird one in my family. When someone makes a quick change of subject we call it a chicken. If I remember the story right it was based on an experience when my 2 nieces were walking back to their car in a shopping center parking lot, chatting about something when one niece interrupted herself with the word "chicken." The other niece looked at her dumbfounded. She explained, no look, there's a chicken in the parking lot. So, now a change of conversation is a chicken.
I missed the beginning of the show, but I assume you discussed how often words that are mispronounced by children who are learning to speak end up sticking around as adults adopt them as well. At my house, we have "cuggle" which is a cross between a cuddle and a snuggle, and "snick" which is used in place of "snip."
Also, way back in the early eighties, my parents were playing an early form of Balderdash, and my dad, when presented with the word "smilette" (pronounced to rhyme with eyelet") fooled the opposing team by very seriously defining it as "the crust that forms on the top of the ketchup bottle." And although a "smilette" is actually a little smile, for our family and several others in central Minnesota, smilette will always be that nasty ketchup crust.
We have a few family words that come from my grandpa. At Christmas if you sneak in the front room to see what gifts were there before everyone was awake you are "nefeeking", when you made it home from a long road trip he would say "himi in" and means home again- that one might be Swedish, but I don't know how it is spelled. The last one occured when my Grandpa called me beautimus one night while we were talking, and I thought he had made up a new word for beautiful so I had to come up with something for him. I called him handsomeful (combining handsome and beautiful), and ever since that is his name from me.
My tiny white haired and very proper grandmother who had six boys. Rather than actually saying the word "penis" she would call it "Mr. Wiggly." It seemed so out of character for her to use that term and I laugh every time I think of it.
I've been using the word "Shat" for years now which is simply the past tense of to defecate. As in the pups shat in the laundry room again!! Half the people find it funny while the other half are offended. It seems perfectly normal to me.
One of your callers used a family word starting with "chinga." This is Spanish slang, the equivalent of the "F-word" in English. A Mexican-American once said, "Hey, hand me that little chingadera over there," meaning, roughly, "thingamajig."
I am Paul Dickson who compiled the book of Family Words discussed on today's show. The last writer's point is well taken. This is one of the hazards of live radio--but it was reported (I think) in all innocence and in a real sense has become a "family word" in that family. These responses are really interesting as as I mentioned on today's show I will soon start compiling a new book. My personal favorite from the broadcast= cinemuck meaning theatrical detrius--empty popcorn boxes and the like. More about me (as well as a way to get in touch) at pauldicksonbooks.com
In our family when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, sometimes we would have cackleberries and wickerbills for breakfast. Afterward we could play with the touger.
Translation: Eggs and Biscuits, and the cat (kitten)
Other terms used in our family come from my other grandfather who referred to the little brown birds that frequent parking lots, especially of fast food establishments, as "twitter asses", he also called cattle standing in a field "slow elk".
One last thing, and I'm not sure of the origin, but in our family when you want a pen or pencil you ask for a "writing stick". If you want eating utensils, ask for "fighters".
This isn't really a new word, but I think it is amusing none the less. A friend of mine related a tale of one of their family sayings. The family was making breakfast and one of the kids was lagging in bed. The mother told my friend to wake her sibling. Her father said" Don't bother, he's a waste of Pancakes". In their family, the term "A Waste of Pancakes" has come to mean someone of low repute, not worth bothering with.
My father, who was from the depression-era, dust-bowl, plains of Kansas, but became a nuclear physicist for NASA, never lost his many coloful regionalisms. Whenever one of us kids would ask him an unanswerable question, like "Why can't we have a pony?" He would respond with, "Cat fur to make kitten britches. Wanna' buy a pair?"
In our family we call our favorite bread with chunks of garlic baked in it "maggot bread" ever since my oldest daughter bit into a slice and in horror exclaimed "AARRGGGHHH, this bread is full of maggots!"
Schnibbles - These are the little bits of meat on the barbeque pit that get cooked first. (Like the ends of the ribs) You snack on them while the rest is cooking! Yum! :)
Growing up we ate a lot of cheezy-weezie which is bread with cheese on top that has been toasted. Don't know where it came from but it's been in my immediate family for around 25 years that I know about.
We have a word in our family- 'choad'... It's that little bit of 'throw-up' you get in the back of your throat sometimes that you have to swallow back down. Choad.
09/12/2007 11:40:18 AM
