Family words and expressions

[Jilly_in_VA]

I know every family has its own words and expressions for different things, and being the inveterate word collector that I am, I'm genuinely interested in sharing mine and collecting yours. I find them fascinating, both the expressions and, if known, their origins. Here are a few from my family, both my family of origin and my um, created family. Please feel free to submit yours! I want to see them!

swoofer-- a wet wipe. Might be derived from "Swiffer".

geibitz--a speck of floating debris, usually in a beverage, though it can be anything. Originally from my college lab partner about a speck on a slide.

staring time-- the amount of time required to come to oneself, i.e. stare at nothing, after a nap or in the morning. From my uncle.

glenguzzle-- the iced tea and lemonade recipe peculiar to my family. From my paternal grandfather, origin unknown.

bandag skin-- piece of tire retread lying alongside a highway. From my late ex, references a commercial

bemoses-- acceptable (to my parents) substitute for "bejesus". From a Jewish friend.

busterfeathers-- family cuss word. Invented by my 4 year old when told he couldn't use the word he'd picked up from another child. Still in use by younger grandchildren.

[Ocelot II]

1. The only one I can remember offhand

is the word my mother used when we kids were causing some kind of commotion - she'd say, "What's all this forstyrrelse?" At the time I didn't know how to spell it or that it was the Norwegian word for "disturbance." I suppose it was a word she'd picked up from a grandparent when she was a kid, but for a long time we just assumed it was another regular English word for the sort of disarray or racket that children made.

[Jilly_in_VA]

3. I love that!

I grew up in a heavily Norwegian-German area but never heard it.

[Karadeniz]

2. Tick tock...a car's direction signal.

[LakeArenal]

4. Here's some:

A nasal spray. A sniffer

A knickknack. A nood-Knick

An old wive’s tale. An old fishwife

To be tackled from behind A Morgan after Derek Morgan on Criminal Minds.

[tblue37]

5. Quiet read or loud read.

After dinner my kids, when young, and I used to read together. If we each read our own book, it was a quiet read. If we were taking turns reading aloud to each other from one book, it was a loud read.

[Binkie The Clown]

6. My mom kept a dictionary at her elbow, and corrected us whenever we used a non-word.

We kids grew up with healthy vocabularies, and no neologisms that I can recall, except for my baby sister calling spaghetti "pus-getti." She got it right eventually, however.

(And if you're worried about them being overly strict, don't. Our parents were warm and loving and we had particularly cheerful childhoods. But we did all grow up to be card-carrying members of the grammar police.)

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. We all had, and have

very healthy vocabularies, but I grew up in a family where wordplay was the major form of humor, and neologisms were not frowned on. In fact, my mother, who had been an English teacher, maintained that such was the way language grows. I agree. I am, however, a grammar nazi, which is quite another thing.

[3catwoman3]

9. If I might, I'll offer "pa-sketti" as an alternative spelling for that...

...ever-so-common childhood mispronunciation. Avoids unpleasant infectious disease imagery.

(Once a nurse, always a nurse, even tho I am now retired.)

My mom, also a nurse, was also very particular about how we spoke. This kind/these kinds. We didn't pee, we voided. When mini-skirts first came out, she fussed about them saying, "Who ever said there was anything attractive about the popliteal space?" (the proper term for the back of the knee).

I, too, am a card-carrying member of the grammar/spelling/vocabulary/proper usage police.

[Talitha]

8. When I was a small child my Grandma used to say 'flea piss'.

Of course, she knew the proper word was 'mist'.

But she liked the way I'd giggle when she said flea piss.

[LuckyCharms]

10. A few...

Sketty = Spaghetti

Sangie = Sandwich

Boogie Ping = Burger King

No bug it = stop bothering me

Heart attack on a plate = Macaroni and Cheese

Kep itch = Ketchup

Your lips are moving, but nothing is coming out = what you say to someone who is unable to think of a witty retort to the playful insult you just gave them

Flea pit = Bed

Cool turd in a dixie cup = the opposite of "hot shit"

European vibrator = a fart so loud that they felt it in Europe

Fishlips = someone who is unfamiliar to you. "Who was that fishlips you were talking to"?

Moe Greene = a plastic owl named after Moe Greene, a character in the movie "The Godfather". Moe gets mounted on a large pole (roof rake pole) every spring to discourage the birds from building a nest in our second floor bathroom vent. "I hear 'em in there. Better go get Moe Greene".

[Totally Tunsie]

11. My parents' name for Shepherd's Pie

was "Hot Stupid" because that's what my mother said to my father as he reached for the casserole bare-handed.