This is directly related to this thread where EmilyG is used to calling a pen cap a “lid” but no one else agrees. Except for her family!
I remember when I was a kid in 2nd grade, I had to tell the class what was on the lunch menu and I said we were having “toasted cheese” and everyone laughed at me because that’s not what the menu said, it said “grilled cheese [sandwiches]” and no one had ever heard of “toasted cheese” before. I’d never heard of “grilled cheese” before.
We also call “Little People” toys and any other sort of person-shaped toy that’s not a doll “peeps.” There’s never really been any public humiliation over that for me.
So what stuff did you have a different name for at home than the rest of the general public? Did it ever get you in trouble?
Also “hot tamales” which everyone else called “sloppy joes” (the name was unique to our home geographic area).
My daughter elfbabe had something she referred to as her “orangies” when she was about 3. Never figured out what they were. “These are my orangies” she would announce proudly!
That was what we called it in my house growing up as well.
I know this is not unique to my family, but the ‘extra’ room in the front of our house with the piano, pull-out couch (so guests slept there when visiting), was called the “den.” I don’t think I knew anyone else who had a “den”, other people’s houses had a “spare room,” “study,” “guest room,” “TV room,” but never a “den.”
That came from the TV my parents had in the very early 70s, in the very early days of remote controls. You yung’uns won’t remember, but back then a TV had a physical dial, and we only had 13 channels. The remote had a button for each channel, and when you clicked the button, the dial physically moved, making a big “conk” sound. Thus… the conker.
Everyone in my family still calls it a conker. I knew my husband was fully assimilated when he once asked me where the garage conker was.
It’s an archaism held over from when remote controls used ultrasound, rather than infrared or RF. The buttons activated a spring-loaded striker that hit a little target to produce the correct tone, and the mechanism clicked when triggered. Later remotes produced the tones electronically, eliminating the click, but the term stuck.
Fun trivia: You could also trigger remote effects by jingling keys. With a little practice, you could use your keyring as a semi-reliable remote.
Growing up, our family word for a backhoe was a “whoopy scooper” - partly named because of the way they beep when backing up and partly for obvious reasons. I’ve never actually used that term in a way that would embarrass me, but I can never recall the word backhoe when I need it either. So I need a minute or two to think of the right word, or I fumble around trying to describe it. Anything to avoid falling back on “whoopy scooper.”
Our family has tons of these, some local, some old words that our grandma used so we all did, some my brothers and I made up. A sampling:
Clicker: remote
Davenport: sofa
Dinker: turn signal
Ragamuffin: disheveled appearance
Dromund: the dining room table specifically, ie not the breakfast room table
Garth: side yard specifically, not the front yard or back yard
Rick: leaf pile
Pendum Dewallacater: penis
Buggus: hockey puck
Beelers: unwanted dirt, rocks in the sleeping bag
Crawl Space: highest level of agreeing to keep a secret
