I’ll like to interrupt this regularly scheduled blog with a message to all of you who left such kind, encouraging, enthusiastic messages, prayers, support and love on my previous post, Holding My Breath. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.Now back to our regularly scheduled post.
Growing up I was verbally challenged. I came to the US (for those of you who don’t know I was born in Haiti) when I was two years old. In my home, some English, French and Creole (a Haitian dialectic) was spoken. As I grew older I started to adapt to the English language (some might argue that point).
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY which some may consider to be another language. We lived in Washington for almost six years and before that we lived in West Virginia. The first year we lived in West Virginia everyone we met wanted us to repeat certain words – water, coffee, ask, etc. To humor them I often said it like Fran Drescher of the Nanny. I love messing with people sometimes.
I love to have fun with words. I’m known from time to time to make up words or borrow them from others. Examples:
Fantabulous – a cross between fantastic and fabulous
Ginormous – a cross between gigantic and enormous
Honking – meaning huge
Conversational whiplash – the term my husband uses to describe me when I change the subject at a moment’s notice
All kinds of wrong – an expression we use when something isn’t right
If there was a word police, I would have gotten arrested over a billion times for my butchering of the English language. So what are some of your favorite words (real or made up) or sayings? Don’t be shy you know you want to share.
© Nadine Z. 2007
24 comments:
I like "fridiculous"... As in "freakin' (or something sorta like that) ridiculous" :)
This is certainly very interesting Nadine and I just have to say it is SHIOKILIOUS - which means Fantastic :D
You have a shiokilious weekend my friend and thanks for sharing :D
I love it. I used Ginormous all the time.....=) I'm a word maker upper, too.
First, thank you for the birthday wishes!
Second, I too love words! We use 'ginormous' and 'honking' around here...When I was a little girl I had a book (still have it actually) called Ultra-Violet Catastrophe...one of my very favorite books! It uses words like 'Horrible Stumper'(a tree pirate name, of course) and 'seismological singularity'.:-)
We do that so much around here that I can't think of any more right now...I'm too used to hearing them! I may have to do a post on this sometime! Have a great day!
PS. a couple years ago my mother had cancer found in a kidney(had it removed) and bladder...she is well now! During the same time our next door neighbor had cancer in the lymph....he is well also! Cling to God's goodness.
I make up words all the time when talking in real life but for the life of me I cant think of any to type out here, figures.
I'll keep you husband in my prayers.
thanks for stopping by my blog. :)
Fun post - and fun to get to know you a bit better also! I often use the expression, 'horse feathers' when I'm frustrated.
I love your words and I might have to steal some..okay maybe all of them.. hehe
I know about being asked to say things for people cuz I'm from the south and the drawl used to be quite thick...I still say ya'll and get a couple giggles out of Trina.
There is one phrase that I got a couple of "What's??" about.. when someone has a cough I say..They are hacking up a lung...Yeah, I don't know either..
Ha ha, I use all of those, too, and I'm a native English speaker! Except conversational whiplash is a new one to me.
I don't make up too many words, but my husband and I speak in a code sometimes that we've pieced together from movie lines, funny TV shows and commercials. Like one time there was a car commercial that advertised its car having a wider base. The tag line was "Wider is better." One of the "Wider is better" commercials featured a Hawaiian guy saying that phrase in Hawaiian -- it sounded like "Aohoolaula." Now when I think something is better, I'll say, "Aohoolaula," and my husband will say, "Exactly!"
What fun! I liked your word list, and hearing about your dialect history!
My oldest (9) says "ginormous" all the time! We say "ridickerous" (like Tigger) and "sheesh" (while rolling our eyes of course!) And we're also a "name calling" family...so hubby and I affectionately call the kids and each other a whole slew of things. Sometimes he's my "broom" (cuz he swept me off my feet)...
I love the answers here. I continually make up words to express what I'm trying to say, but, like KC, I can't think of any to type here. I love your list and I love reading everyone elses responses. I love the conversational whiplash Idea. I'll have to share it with my hubby so he can tease me with it when I do that to him.
I loved finding out old words like discombobbled, and discumgalligumfricate. They both mean confused.
Isn't the English language grand. I wish I knew more languages. I tried a couple of years of Russian and failed miserably.
Have a lovely day!
I use most of those words too, and beautious!
cool post! my kids use the word Ginormous ALL the time!
Thanks for the sweet comments on my Blog! I am most thank ful for you as well! Blessings to you!
Thank you for your comment I was having a really bad day yesterday.
as to words I have two
Absitively posolutely
which is positively and absolutely combined I like to make up words
fundiddyquan is a Troutman household favorite. I haven't yet pinned down the meaning to this one yet. Their is also "the Walmarshay", which is Walmart.
Jenn
I've used ginormous as well and other words that I actually have to repeat and give the definition to. It comes from living with the word police - my mom - and studying English Lit in University which has all been forgotten as I've spent more time in the last decade in dishwater and diapers!! :-) Have a fantastic weekend
You'd think growing up in the South, I could come up with something, but my mind is drawin' a big ole blank!
Have a fantabulous weekend!
I say a few of those. I also say:
Fiddle Faddle - whatever, get over it
Pish Posh - same meaning as above.
I also say: "who gives a ding dang dong?"
That's all I can think of right now, but there are tons more, believe me. My husband is from LA & I'm from Alabama. So, there stuff I say that he still has no clue about.
I still use honken,then get embarrased, but you know we said it when we were kids! And I still say cash-o-lah meaning, cash of course. Target is Tar-shay, like it is a fine upper class shopping experience. When a girl is a cutie we say in our house, she is a senorita, with eyebrows raised.
That was fun! Still praying for you all.
I was born tongue-tied and therefore made my own dialect and had a speech therapy once maybe...but ya I got in the habit of saying words my own way, the easy way I suppose. Here are some of them:
Tyol'nol-tylenol
tatoll-turtle
torch-church
uns-nuns
and there's one that really bugs my husband that I say and he corrects me every single time, but I can't remember it right now. Haha I guess I really don't want to say it the correct way 'cause I can't even remember what it was now!
I, too use fantabulous. I also use anyhew, welp for well and see you "soonly."
Hey
Those are great!!
I'll definitely have to steal the conversational whiplash!!
Our family is a namecalling family as well we call each other freakazoids or fartknockers when we are being silly...all in love of course..lol!!
Have a great day!!
Too funny! I use ginormous all the time. Plus I say prettyful, gazillion & anyhoo. Now, what really got me LOL is Fantabulous. I have never heard anyone else say that! I've been saying fantabulous since middle school. Actually, in high school they print favorite quotes, sayings & plans for the future under your senior picture. Along with other stuff, it says that I plan to marry the most Fantabulous man in the world. And I did!
I've heard 'ginormous' and 'fantabulous' before. I love 'conversational whiplash' - I'll steal that one. My friend, Sandie, and I are guilty of it. We'll have three conversations going at the same time and bounce from one to the other. It confuses our husbands.
We use 'gazillion,''katrillion,' and 'bajillion' in our house (numerals much bigger than a trillion). There's also "brain fart" when you're in the middle of a thought and it vanishes.
I got a chuckle out of marykathryn's expression 'hacking up a lung'. It reminded me of a sitcom years ago where Patrick Duffy's character used the expression "coughing up lung-butter." Ewwww. I don't think the expression was as funny as the person saying it. I mean, c'mon, Bobby Ewing didn't talk like that. Fun post, Nadine!
We use all kinds of made up words around here, too! We love words! Of course, I can't think of a one of them at the moment because the coffee hasn't hit my bloodstream yet...=) When I was a kid (and even now) I would make up words or simply change the pronunciation of words to something that sounded better to me. My mom used to tell me I simply could not do that - but it never stopped me! =) Now my kids do it, too (make up words and change the pronunciation of words). Maybe it is just something creative people and writers just DO??? =)
Post a Comment