# Words kids make up **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583 "2011-09-08T04:56:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MobiusStripes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@MobiusStripes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MobiusStripes)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/21 "2011-09-08T18:12:20Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > But Celtling absolutely knows which is blankie number one and blankie number two. My daughter (nearly 6 years old) has no less than 3 identical white cats (plush animals) purchased at the same place at various times (due to the original becoming not-so-white). They all look identical to me but she can tell them apart at a glance. “No, not that one daddy! That’s the mommy cat. I want the kitten.” (She’s very consistent with which one is the mother cat too.) We all begin the search for yet another white(ish) cat that is somewhere in the house. And more on topic… “No-K” is the opposite of “OK”. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/22 "2011-09-08T18:15:26Z")
My four year old niece doesn’t say hand sanitizer, but with “hanitizer” we know exactly what she wants. ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/23 "2011-09-08T18:38:50Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > When my daughter was little she (logically really), called the leftover crust of pizza “pizza bones”. Your daughter may have been making that up herself but it’s what I’ve always known the leftover pizza crust as. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/24 "2011-09-08T18:48:37Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > “Doo-de-doo” - a cardboard tube, either from a roll of paper towels or toilet paper, used as a makeshift trumpet. Named after what someone does with one: hold it up to their mouth and go “doo-de-dooooo!” My brother and I called those things a “Doot Doot” which is what I’ve taught my daughter to call them. My little one (now 3 years old) calls vanilla wafers “Ba-La-Las.” ---
**Author:** ![Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bag_of_mostly_water/32/1029_2.png) [@Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bag_of_Mostly_Water)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/25 "2011-09-08T18:54:34Z")
My daughter, when she was around five, decided the opposite of “inside out” is “outside out.” Makes perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/26 "2011-09-08T18:56:12Z")
Once, when my kid was very little and we were out running errands, he spied a familiar looking restaurant. I heard a pathetic little query from the back seat: “Dinner store?” We stopped for a snack. And then we called restaurants dinner stores for the next several years. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/27 "2011-09-08T18:57:16Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > My four year old niece doesn’t say hand sanitizer, but with “hanitizer” we know exactly what she wants. That is probably the best one yet… I seriously could see this entering the American lexicon. I am going to start calling it that. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/28 "2011-09-08T19:10:40Z")
Calling a push pin a “pokey”. Makes sense ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/29 "2011-09-08T19:12:18Z")
Just thought of a good one, but an adult came up with it. Still, it’s in the family lexicon, so I’ll share: When my wife was a teenager, she was on a car trip with her dad and stepmom. Stepmom looks out the car window and sees a field full of horses, including quite a few young/newborns. But, none of the words are coming to her. Foals, colts, fillies? She blanks. So instead, she alerts the car by excitedly shouting, “Look! Um…um…puppy horses!” ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/30 "2011-09-08T19:17:21Z")
My kid had to erase some homework he put in the wrong place. He was a kid and clean erasing was difficult. He said he had to “fog it out”. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/31 "2011-09-08T19:39:43Z")
This doesn’t strictly fit the OP, as it’s a misunderstanding that stuck, not something the kid invented: At a backyard party when someone was grilling hot dogs, one of a group of kids watching observed: “those are burned!” to which the cook replied, “no, they’re just crispy,” meaning browned. The group of kids misheard this as “frisby” and for a long time after my boy and friends always wanted “frisby hotdogs” so I’d crisp them a bit to make them “frisby”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/32 "2011-09-08T19:52:13Z")
Not the name of a thing, but the name of a person. When we were growing up, we had three grandmothers. One was our great grandmother. It was a little confusing what to call them. My brother asked GGma what she wanted to be called. Grandma, great grandma, grandma Sundblom? She answered “Just grandma.” From then on that was her name. Just Grandma. For the longest time I thought we called her that because she lived alone. As in, who lives in that house? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/33 "2011-09-08T20:09:31Z")
When my daughter was 2 ish she called the Pegasus horses in Fantasia as “neigh-birds”. She called animals by their sounds so the horses were “neighs” and since they were winged, they were a type of bird. My son, also 2ish, called nipples “nibbles”. ---
**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:** [September 8, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/34 "2011-09-08T20:16:00Z")
My cousin, when he was little, called Night Time “Dark Time” There’s an entire book of such words (albeit mixed in with others that aren’t little-kid coinages), Dickson’s **Family Words** : > **[Paul Dickson - FAMILY WORDS](https://www.pauldicksonbooks.com/family_words_63238.htm)** > > Website of Paul Dickson, author of more than 40 books including Sputnik: The Shock of the Century and the Hidden Language of Baseball. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/35 "2011-09-08T20:24:40Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > My son, also 2ish, called nipples “nibbles”. “Them’s called tips.” ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/36 "2011-09-08T20:58:04Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > “Them’s called tips.” Or in my sister’s house, “nursies”. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/37 "2011-09-08T21:12:48Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > “Them’s called tips.” He was making gingerbread men (women?) and using those teeny tiny M&Ms. As he added each M&M to each cookie’s chest in the anatomically correct spot he soflty said to himself: “nibbles”. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/38 "2011-09-08T21:14:35Z")
> [@Jelly\_Roll](#): > > My brother and I called those things a “Doot Doot” which is what I’ve taught my daughter to call them. It’s actually known as a [derder](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=derder). My daughter’s friend coined the term “front-following” to refer to when a car in front of you keeps going the exact same way you are. Not a coined word, but a new usage: When I put my daughter to sleep, I used to tell stories to her and then sing songs. Usually the stories were read out of books but occasionally I made them up. One time I asked her if she wanted me to read a story and she said “No, sing one”, meaning “tell a story without reading it from a book”. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/39 "2011-09-09T03:10:37Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > One to puzzle over: when she was younger and had just learned to count, she was in the back seat of the car, counting to ten, then counting backwards. She did it a couple times, then got quiet for a bit. Then she asked, “Daddy, how do you count side-to-side?” Not so much a puzzle; you just have to use [imaginary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_number)numbers. 1i, 2i, 3i, 4i, 5i, 6i, 7i, 8i, 9i, 10i. 😃 My parents raised us bilingually, with my mom speaking only to us kids in French and my dad speaking only English. When she was young, my sister didn’t know the words for the languages, so she called them mommy-language or daddy-language. She would ask new people she was meeting whether she had to speak in mommy or dad language? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583/40 "2011-09-09T13:37:23Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > When my daughter was little she (logically really), called the leftover crust of pizza “pizza bones”. :dubious: I’ve been calling leftover pizza crusts “pizza bones” for at least 20 years now, and I learned the term from some friends who said they grew up calling them that. You sure your kid didn’t hear it at school/a friend’s house/TV? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-kids-make-up/595583.md?page=3)