# MAD words **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599 "2005-05-19T16:20:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/1 "2005-05-19T16:20:06Z")
This is almost a general question but it really is mindless. In my youth I read _Mad_ magazine (I particularly enjoyed the movie sendups) and I remember seeing three words that I never, ever saw anywhere else. I can also never remember all three of them at once. The two I remember at the moment are “potzrebi” and “fershluggener.” I am now trying to remember that third word. As soon as I remember it, I will forget at least one, and possibly both of the other two. (Uh, I just realized this sounds like a “say the secret word and you win a duck” kind of a post. It’s not. Really. Nobody wins anything. Just come up with the word and nobody gets hurt, okay?) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/2 "2005-05-19T16:27:13Z")
Axolotl? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/3 "2005-05-19T16:38:31Z")
Fonebone? ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/4 "2005-05-19T16:39:20Z")
“fonebone” “sploink” “glitch” (the sound of stepping in dog doo) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/5 "2005-05-19T16:54:15Z")
[Here](http://www.wtv-zone.com/moe/moesboomerabilia/page13.html) is a page dedicated to MAD. On the page are these words: Axolotl, borscht, frammistan, farshimmelt, furshlugginer, ganef, halavah, moxie, poiuyt, potrzebie, and veeblefetzer. Many are Yiddish in origin. Is the last one the one you’re looking for? ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/6 "2005-05-19T19:28:33Z")
We had a cat named Potzrebi once. What? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/7 "2005-05-19T19:43:06Z")
When I was in college, someone went around writing “potrzebie” all over the fershlugginer place. Still a yiddish word from MAD was a lot more interesting than the farshimmelt graffiti from two years later, when some fakakta schlamiel scrawled “Who Is John Galt?” on the all the buildings. Oy vey. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![bradministrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@bradministrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradministrator)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/8 "2005-05-19T20:58:35Z")
Schmendrick? ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2005, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/9 "2005-05-19T22:05:20Z")
Qwerty? ---
**Author:** ![infamousmom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d6d6ee/32.png) [@infamousmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infamousmom)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/10 "2005-05-20T06:33:01Z")
How about poiuyt? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/11 "2005-05-20T11:52:29Z")
#@&%/^!!! ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/12 "2005-05-20T13:40:27Z")
I wondered if perhaps you were thinking of “nov schmov kapop”? ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/13 "2005-05-20T13:44:09Z")
Man, this stuff takes me back. As an aside, is “fershluggener” a real word? I’ve used it all my life, taking the \*Mad \* definition from context, but does it have a root in the real world? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/14 "2005-05-20T13:52:21Z")
> [@](#): > > I wondered if perhaps you were thinking of “nov schmov kapop”? Nitpick: That’s “Nov Schmo_z_ ka pop”. My uncle still uses this. “Poiuyt” was created by running their finger backwards across half of the top line on a keyboard. They used the name for that optical illusion that looks like a slotted flat at one end and three pipes at the other. Apparently they paid some artist for it, then found out he hadn’t created it. But when they premiered it, it showed up on the cover of Mad. For year you’d find it lying in random p0laces in the magazine, like in a Mort Drucker movie satire. Kinda like Arthur, the plant. Or the Mad Zeppelin. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/15 "2005-05-20T14:12:00Z")
[In this old thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=192208) which had a lot of posts relating to The Far Side, there were also quite a few MAD references. Might be fun to look at some of them there. I just did a search on “bottles axoltls wandered clod” and checked some of the hits, including a neat WIKI article on axolotls. One of the old MAD poems about axolotls is what made me select that as the missing word in the OP. I miss the old MAD from the 50’s. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/16 "2005-05-20T14:30:30Z")
> [@Genghis Bob](#): > > Man, this stuff takes me back. As an aside, is “fershluggener” a real word? I’ve used it all my life, taking the \*Mad \* definition from context, but does it have a root in the real world? \ It’s spelled “furschlugginer” and was once defined as “what you use to schluggin your fur”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/17 "2005-05-20T18:38:50Z")
Melvin was here. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/18 "2005-05-20T19:13:16Z")
43-man squamish ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/19 "2005-05-21T04:04:05Z")
> [@bradministrator](#): > > Schmendrick? Oooh. This seems close. But was there one that started with an X? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599/20 "2005-05-21T04:05:37Z")
> [@williamweigand](#): > > \ It’s spelled “furschlugginer” and was once defined as “what you use to schluggin your fur”. 🙂 Yeah and my OP misspelled potrzebi, too. (This one may have, too.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-words/304599.md?page=2)