Gimme some of those words only your family uses. Definitions a must, examples if necessary. Some of ours:
Snuggy-boo – In cold weather, the act or existence of snuggling under the covers with Mr. MercyStreet and/or the cats. Noun, verb, adjective. Examples:
“Oooo, we’re all snuggy-boo.” AND “Big Mac and Hankyspank are getting ready to snuggy-boo.” AND “It’s time for snuggy-boo.”
Gillcheemato – Grilled cheese with tomato sandwich. Noun.
Macenchee – Macaroni and cheese. Noun.
Poo palace – A secluded, overlooked bathroom in a public building. Noun. “I found a top-of-the-line poo palace today on the fourth floor.”
Ickypants – State of ill health. Noun. “You should stay home today. You look ickypants.”
TMI
Alright, know that I think about it, this is one of the stupidest things ever, but I’ll admit it for the sake of soul cleansing.
For some reason, my family didn’t call feces poo, shit, #2, or whatever. My parents called it a “B”. We didn’t call urine “A”, so I really don’t know why. Anyways, I grew up thinking that shit was called a “B”, which led to some confusement on my part. Whenever I would take a dump and then go to wipe, I would call the stuff on the toilet paper “beeswax.” I guess I just heard the word somewhere and didn’t know what it meant, so I figured that’s what it was - shit residue.
Also, I remember when my parents told me that bees can sting you. Sometimes the shit comes out with a pointy end, and I remember thinking that if I touched it it would sting me.
Crushimbled.
This is my father’s term for something that has been messed up somehow. Like for example: “I tried to fix the screen door but something went wrong and now its crushimbled.”
Or: “The cake looked really nice at first, but when I tried to frost it the top got all crushimbled.”
My brothers and I use the phrase “guy from Jaws” when we see someone (it can be a regular person you meet on the street, not necessarily a movie star) who looks like the “guy from Jaws.”*
The phrase “secret spaceship” is interchangeable with “secret.” There is a story behind this, but I don’t feel like telling it now.
*“Guy from Jaws” does not refer to one person, but rather to all three male leads in the movie.
stumpified, adj. A cross between stupefied and stumped, i.e. so confused and clueless you are in danger of losing consciousness from non-comprehension.
The origin of this word is from a drive we took where we came to a small town called Stumpfield and misread the sign.
I don’t know if it’s made up or not, or how to spell it for that matter, but my grandfather would always threaten us with a “labooskie” if we got out of hand. A “labooskie” is apparently a spanking.
Does it count if you thought your family made it up?
My family will comment if one of us gets dressed up by saying, “you look very respectabiggle.” It was only later that I found out that it comes from The Siver Chair by CS Lewis, in which a marshwiggle(frog) goes swimming in a giant-sized mug of beer, and proclaims himself a “reschpectabiggle wiggle.”
The Geech (pronounced jeech) is the remote control for whichever piece of electronic wizardry we’re trying to operate at the time.
When my mom gets flustered, she doesn’t make up words - instead, she uses words from long ago. She refers to my brother and me by her two youngest sisters’ names. People are often amused to hear two guys, the smaller of whom is 6’2" and about 240 pounds, repeatedly called Debbie and Blythe.
Ahdeeps : Christmas lights. My nephew coined that one, which stemmed from “Ah, pretty lights” when he was too young to, well, say “Ah, pretty lights”. We still refer to christmas lights as ahdeeps.
Feisty as a potluck : meaning bland as all get out. We’re Minnesota Lutherans. What do you expect?
Macabony : is our Macaroni N Cheese
Macapeas : I will only eat macabony if it has peas. Ergo, macapeas
The Abyss : My sister’s purse. The woman probably carries the kitchen sink in there. Every purse of her’s the is Abyss.
My dad is the king of silly saying. Sadly, he says them out loud. His favorite is “Iffen it cost a nickle to pee, I’da haveta wet myself”. Usually, this is said loudly. In public.
Whenever we play Clue, the revolver is referred to exclusively as the lualua (say “revolver” with a bad Japanese accent). I think this was started by my uncle, who was stationed at the naval base in Okinawa for three years.
Neither of these is a made up word, but they seem to fit with the theme, so:
One of my mom’s best dishes is “hammered chicken”, named by me when I was 13 years old because she pounded it flat with a meat mallet before frying it (thereby rendering it “hammered”). It started as a joke, but it is now the official name of the dish, and we often forget about the :dubious: that mentioning this tends to create among “outsiders”.
Whenever there’s a potentially tense situation that one of us wishes to diffuse, that person will finish the other’s sentence by pointing at my grandfather and saying “…yeah, and he collects helmets”. This was started when, in the middle of a heated battle between grandma and my mother, grandpa stepped in between them, raised one finger as if to make a profound, argument-concluding point, and said “I collect helmets.” We stared at him in silence for a moment, he gave a little shrug, and we all instantly cracked up. Just leave it to grandpa…
(He does indeed collect helmets, by the way; WWI and II-era military issue.)
My folks called it grunce. I hated using the bathroom after Dad went grunce. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized he was calling it grunts because that’s what he’d do when he went in there.
What I found extremely odd is that at the time my friend’s Dad called it grunties.
ubstanding - Used in place of “upstanding” whenever humor is needed. Came into being one night many years ago when we were watching Wheel of Fortune and the board looked like:
U_STANDING CITIZEN
and the contestant asked for a “B”. coodabee - My grandmother’s shorthand for “cute as can be”.
Not exactly a made up word but when we kids had been told to do something and we replied with the inevitable “gonna,” my dad would always come back with “Yeah, well gonna was shot.” :eek: No one in the entire family can come up with a resonable explanation for this (my father included) or even what it’s supposed to mean. He’s 89 now so I expect we’ll never know.
ish-our word for pacifier. I had no idea that wasn’t the real word til my aunt had a baby and looked at me funny when I cooed “want your ish?” to my baby cousin.
mactato-macaroni and potato salad smushed together.
caggy-candy, courtesy of my marbled mouthed baby brother. We called it that for yrs and yrs.
I have nothing to add to this conversation, other than to point out that I’ve now become convinced that every family in America must have a different word for macaroni and cheese.
Punchie - short for Punchie Changie. Noun. Means remote control. Origin: circa 1985; We got our first television with a remote, and Dad was thrilled. He sat there just flipping channels all day long. Up until this point, my sister and I were the remote. He looked at us with wonder in his eyes, and said “It’s like presto chango! Punchie…changie!” Currently used by my entire immediate family, my stepmom, my neice, and all of my long term boyfriends.
No one in the entire family can come up with a resonable explanation for this (my father included) or even what it’s supposed to mean. He’s 89 now so I expect we’ll never know.