Those big grey animals with big ears and a trunk are effidents. (And will be forever, reguardless of the fact that Alex can pronounce them correctly now).
‘moof!’ is a sharp exclamation to see who’s in the house and who’s paying attention. It’s cool cause the twins say it at the exact same time and intonation.The reply is, of course, “MOOF!”
‘Fner.’ is…well, I dunno what it is, but the answer is always negative:
“Fner.”
“nah.”
The boys are ‘bugglies’, short for Gruntbugglies…which is short for Grunting Bugglies…which is a phrase blatantly stolen from Vogon poetry. Anyway, it was a proud moment for me when they let me know I was a buggly. Usually goes something like:
Dad: “Who’s a buggly?”
Collin & Alex: “MEEEE!”
Dad: “Is Collin a buggly?”
Collin: “I a buggly”
Dad: “Is Alex a buggly?”
Alex: “I a buggly”
and just once:
Dad: “Is mommy a buggly?”
<tense thought>
Twins: “nooooo.”
Dad: “Is DAD a buggly?”
Twins: “Yep!”
I’m sure I have a bunch of these, but the only one I can remember at the moment is a combination of two words that seem to capture something more specific than either can alone.
One used by my wonderful Grandad to describe the throbbing pains in the temple (head), or throat when eating ice cream is “yung-yungs”, because that is how the pain feels. I thought it was a regular term, but have never had anyone else know that one, although it’s always gladly appropriated. Let me know if you’ve ever heard it.
My own contribution to these boards is “bellignorant”. An obvious, unfortunately, needed contribution to the language.
Thanks to my Dad’s incredibly bad memory, the entire family now refers to “Mark’s Work Wearhouse” as Mark’s World of Work or Mark’s Working House of Wear or some other variation on that theme.
Going back at least as far as my paternal grandparents, the act of going to sleep is known as Going teepy-teepy witt’na Woof-Woof.
In my family circle, any stuffed animal is a "gee ", anything cool or wonderous is “PDS” (pretty damn scooby), and, when nature calls, we head for the “boom boom room”.
I thought of a couple more. My brother had trouble reading as a kid, and since we were rather a merciless teasing family, several of his mispronunciations because standard argot. If you’re really dressed up, you’re looking swave and da-boner. And the food co-op is the food coop. The latter led to this exchange with a coworker who had just moved to down.
ME: If you like organic, you can shop at the food coop.
[Long pause]
SHE: [tactfully] I think that may be pronounced “co-op.”
I laughed and told her how sweet she was to act like there may be some doubt as to whether it’s pronounced “co-op.” She calls it the food coop now too.
My car has an automatic locking system where if you press down once on the power lock button, the car “bings” three times. Then, 7 seconds after you close the door, all the doors lock. At one point (when she was much younger) my daughter wanted to know if she could make the car go “bing-bing”. The door locks are now “bing-bings”.
Also, we frequently say “Uv oo.” (Love you - from child learning to speak.)
A group of my friends & I say “snugs” at the end of emails or in chats - it’s a combination of “snuggle” and “hugs”, meaning a much longer cuddly hug. It used to only be in the MUSH we hung out in, but it’s crept out into general usage.
We have two that I immediately think of, although the second one might not count according to the rules:
The phrase “Maui Palms.” We once got a fly-car-motel package for Maui. It was great, but as for the motel, what more do you need to know beyond the fact that the first thing you see upon entering the room is a HUGE can of bug spray, courtesy of the hotel?
The Happy Dance. We have this rather, ah, strange habit of just-for-the-heck-of-it on some occasions of holding hands and jumping up and down in unison. Sometimes we go “Whee, whee, whee!”
BubbleSharks. When my kids were smaller, I would submerge a bottle or other container in the bathwater, and move it toward them while releasing a constant stream of bubbles; “Look out! The BubbleShark’s gonna get ya!”
Misappeared - this one was coined by my daughter when she was a toddler, but it does have a distinct meaning - disappeared under mysterious or surprising circumstances.
My lover drinks a LOT of coffee. On occasion, this stimulates his G.I. tract. These occasions are refered to as “ass-plosions”, as in “Get out of the bathroom, I’ve got an assplosion coming!”
With my parents, any indication of confusion is replied to with “What shark?”. The correct reply is “What truck?”. This refers to an incident in my childhood when, in a car full of people, someone pointed out something (I can’t remember what) by the roadside. I misheard them, and rather incredulously asked “What shark?”. My mother misheard me and asked me “What truck?”. This got passed around the car until pretty much everyone was confused, including the person who had started it, since he didn’t realize that the sharks and trucks everyone was asking about were mishearings of his original observation.
Ziffle- noun. A pimple or zit on one’s ass. Usage: “Dude! You’ve got a huge ziffle that’s begging to be squeezed.”
Foof- verb. To waft bedsheets and blankets several times over a person lying in the bed, in order for that person to get a lovely breeze. Usage: “Honey, will you foof me?”
The Crap Aisle- noun. The aisle at the grocery store where all the cookies & chips are on display. Usage: “We’re outta crap. Let’s head to the Crap Aisle”
Marklar- verb, noun. Taken from South Park and used instead of “thingie” when one can’t think of the correct word.
Jizz- noun. (Not what you’re thinking) Refers to any cream, lotion, liquid soap, or other viscous substance. Can be interchanged with Goo. Usage: “I need to put some foot goo/jizz on my heels, they’re so dry.”
Friend- noun. Bottle of nasal spray (we have an addict in the house). What’s worse is he uses this phrase: “I need to suck my friend.” Hopefully he hasn’t said this around people not in the know.
Pusher Man- noun. Refers to my psychiatrist.
Talk Doc-noun. Refers to my therapist.
Then there are a ton of words we intentionally misprounounce in regular conversation:
My family uses “benny” and “duffy” to describe top-shelf and off-price things respectively. It comes from Benny Hill where Benny Airlines has a constant party going with free-flowing booze and hot chicks, and the old man Duffy is stuck in the prop plane that looks like it will barely make it off the ground.
As in, “Your father sprang for the benny peanut butter.”
They refer to a “tree-fitty” swimsuit, from South Park referring to $3.50 one kid owed the other (??), because when Mom looks for clearance suits at KMart they always seem to cost $3.50.
And my parents have always called our nuclear family The Piggle family after some character in Pogo. Mom and Pop are Mr. and Mrs. Piggle, or Mr. and Mrs. P.
There are too many to mention between Jayjay and myself. The latest one happened this weekend when we were chatting with friends. Whenever anyone ended a risque story, we would look at each other and say “the aristocrats!”.
**Fling ** is how you beg for your share of the bedclothes. “You’re hogging the blanket! C’mon, fling me.”
BamBunny, thanks to one cousin with a hearing problem, the only name most familial grandmothers will answer to. Also, **Dove ** is interchangeable with love.
My grandfather also had a major hearing problem. And 56 grandchildren. I was presented to him just after my cousin Talitha. He somehow combined our names and exclaimed, “Amalthea! You named her after a goat?” So guess what name my family uses to make me angry?
Oh and ask my mom sometime about our trip to Rount Mushmore!
“Shake-shake” is jarred parmasean cheese at our house. Courtesy of my older nephew.
“Nice powder” is baby powder. My younger nephew seems to have made that up because his father used to ask him if he’d like some nice powder when he changed his diaper.
“Mad love” is hugging the dog or cat. Useage: “Come on! Give Bobby mad love. He’s a good boy!”
