One of our particular family words is "flidge-a-later". When my daughter had her pre-kindergarten interview, one of the questions asked was, "What is the big box in the kitchen that is used to keep food cold?" The school principal later told us he did all he could to keep a straight face, when she looked him square in the eye, and said, "You mean the flidge-a-later?"
Here at the manor, if you happen to do something either outstandingly stupid or mean, not just regular every-day-kind-of-stupid, but something of the brilliantly stupid variety, you are ceremoniously bestowed the prestigious title "Butt in the Hall of Fame". This endearing practice started when the two older kids misunderstood the lyrics of the Munchkin song "Follow the Yellow Brick Road", from The Wizard of Oz, that go something like...
You will be a bust, be a bust, be a bust,
in the Hall of Fame!
At ages three and five, they had no idea what a bust was. It certainly sounded like "butt" to them. Okay, please tell me we're not the only family who has fondly and so willingly adopted silly words into their vocabulary. I would love to know some of yours.
LOL! I think this is one of the best things about being around children! They say the funniest things.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest daughter use to call water, "wahgnay" and as she got older, She kept calling it that because we called it that too.
And. . .
My youngest daughter was terrified by the Pool Pump next door because it made a really loud noise. She called it "The Poo Pump Monster!"
Well in our family if you got called a "fedabeddy" it was quite an insult. No idea where it came from or what it's suppose to be, but my niece, who otherwise had great language skills when she wasn't crying, just called some kids who were rotten to her fedabeddies and we kept it.
ReplyDeleteBath time, when I often busied myself cleaning the bathroom while the kids soaked. This time the bather looked up imploringly and said "Talk a while?" Ashamed, feeling like an absentee mom, I sat down on the toilet seat and asked what this barely verbal child would like to talk about. Again, nothing but "Talk a while?" Yes, yes, I'm here, let's get on with it. What's on your mind? Finally, the light dawned when he added a verb. "Get talkawhile?" Oh, talkawhile! (The toy crocodile for the tub.) I fetched talkawhile and went back to cleaning the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteAh, the private language of families. Great subject, Willow.
My mother and aunt have always used a word that I just never knew the meaning of, and for some reason didn't want to ask them what it meant. Example: One of them might say, "Well, there was some 'difugulty' with everyone agreeing on....blahblahblah..."
ReplyDeleteAbout five years ago I finally attempted to look up that word with various spellings. Nothing! And so I asked my mother what the heck it was.
She laughed and told me that since they were kids, someone they used to know pronounced the word "difficulty" like that and all their lives they mockingly pronounced "difficulty" as "difugulty".
Now that's "di-fu'-gulty", accent on the fu. LOL.
I hope you don't experience any difugulty over this comment!
Rick
Oh, these are the best. This is exactly the poo pump kind of fedabeddy I was looking for! I'm glad we can talkawhile about this silliness without any difugulty.
ReplyDeleteA great way to unearth more of these little treasures is to play the game 'Scattegories' with your family, you will find them justifying all sorts of unlikely nouns!
ReplyDeleteWe were almost convinced last weekend by our 11yo that there was such a thing as the 'Duck Hop Jive' especially after she gave us a very convincing demonstration.
x Felicity
PS enjoyed this post immensely, cute-cumbers will rule in our home forever more!
When our son was small and finally trying valiantly to read more, he asked one morning what a "Pew-is" Nun was. We all looked about quizzically only to have him spell the word. It was the "Pious" Nun. We all thought it so funny , that for many years we called the cat "Pew-is" as a nickname. "Pew-is" indeed!
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh...Mom has had some doozies fae words ;)
ReplyDelete...ah...not decent either, so I'll spare ya...
My brother called "spaghetti", "busketty" for quite a while, when he was a wee baird :)
Oh, Subby, "busketty" was a favorite around here, too. Our daughter used this same variation!
ReplyDeletemy daughter used to call
ReplyDeletechocolate milk
....cold hot chocolate
and the one
when she saw fuzz on anything she called it fug
oh this was fun remembering Willow
Willow...I kid you NOT....this happened today:
ReplyDeleteIn my speech class, the last few students were schedule to read a children's book to the class.
One of my seniors really had the entire group caught up in his very rich and warm and expressive reading of a book simply titled THE GOLDEN RULE...in which a grandfather explains what the rule really means and how many religions have a particular version of it. The reader was doing so well....and then the grandfather mentioned...(are you ready?)...Bootyism!!....and warm chuckles rolled in from each row...my student looked to me....and I confirmed that I was certain that was a common belief among many high school students as they strolled up and down our hallowed halls!! And he smiled and asked me to help him pronounce B U D D H I S M!
When my #1 son was little, he called our home town "BurningHam" (Birmingham: a smoking & puffing steel town .)....and to this day we all say that, sometimes shortening it to The Ham!
Bootyism!! That is priceless. Guess you can tell what's rattling around in a high school guy's head. I'm gonna be giggling over that one the rest of my life!
ReplyDeleteFray-jer-jer = refrigerator
ReplyDeleteHeliclopter = helicopter
Ambliance = ambulance
Compterful = comfortable
Binoclears = binoculars
Feathers = hair
Toofs = teeth
That is just a selection from our family. My wife's family had so many she just called them "Bentleyisms." She was sometimes embarrassed in high school and college when she used them and learned they weren't common to the masses.
Michael, yes, "toofs" here, too. And I just remembered another one..."aminals".
ReplyDeleteI've got one almost like Rick's. SWMBO has for years pronounced difficulty as dih-FICK-ul-tee. She knows the difference, it's just something she started saying one day.
ReplyDeleteBut her daughter, the BRD, had one she was confused about when she was a very young girl: a chester drawers. It took awhile for her to learn that it was "a chest of drawers."
I think I have some, too, but I can't think of them at the moment.
I have a few but they really are too corny for public viewing. I did enjoy your fractures though. -- barbara
ReplyDelete" I led the pigeons to flag of the Newnighted States of America..."
ReplyDeleteWoodlice are woodmice round these here parts. May be pill bugs where you are...
ReplyDeleteAnd Blu-tak is Glu-tak. And if you think about it, it actually is.
My nephew called my daughter Maingan when he was little, her name is Meghan, we still sometimes call her Maingan.
ReplyDeleteWe also use the word "bloto" around here ALL the time. It's what my family says when I whip out my camera to take a photo for the blog - a blog photo is a "bloto".
"The Hounds of the Bastardvilles" ... our family version of the horror story we create for next door neighbors who dislike dogs....
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun post.
ReplyDeleteA couple of children-invented words in our house are:
serbie serbie = serviette
horse-piddle = hospital
There was a little church song "Our God Reigns" that somehow morphed into "Our Claude Rains", not by the kids, but by us.
ReplyDeleteMy husband mixes up sayings, my favorite is, "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it." ;->
ReplyDeleteShrits...daughter misspelled the word "shirts" one time in 5th grade. I made that word my first on-line "name", and just anyone who mattered then, wrote the incorrect SHIRTS instead of my correct SHRITS.
ReplyDeleteYou have a B I G imagination, Ma'am
All these word stories are so much fun to read. My favorite, from my daughter's lips, occurred when she watched me in rehearsal for the musical "Cabaret". She came home, prancing and singing,"Life is a crap away, old chunk"...and I fell apart laughing. To this day, those mangled lyrics from my 4 year old are the only words I hear when Sally Bowles entertains.
ReplyDeleteps The java pork chops were a huge hit! Thanks.
Oh, so many. One that I remember best is calling my baby sister "the bobby" because that's how my little brother pronounced "the baby" and it just stuck.
ReplyDeleteI don't think she knew her name was Ann until she was about three years old...
This post made me laugh and laugh. And I'm using that phrase next chance I get!
Mazagine and chinch fries.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE how these little kid phrases become a part of the family language ~ we almost have too many. Oldest son came home from preschool with a candy cane at Christmas time calling it a "hangy hang". While handing the candy canes to the children, she told them they could hang it on the Christmas tree. He combined candy, cane, and hang ~ hangy hang. They'll never be candy canes in our home!!! Son #2 was three when his sister was born and we named her Rebekah Kate. He called her "my sister Rebekah Kate" which quickly became "Mybekah". He called her that for years until everyone began calling her Bekah. I miss that one!!!! Those are perhaps our best other than our second daughter who pronounced fish, shi@. We'd say, "Sarah, say Daddy's going fishing." You get the idea. We had some very crude fun with that one. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy neice said loads of things when she was a toddler that have become regularly used in our family, in fact she was the only one who grew out of them! :-)
ReplyDeleteWashine - washing Machine
Lawno - Lawnmower
and if something was too tight/didn't fit it was - too fit!
I have a lot of things that are too fit!
and some from my own childhood ...
oboes - elbows
soldier - shoulder
Great fun! I am sure I am going to be thinking of more of these all day.
I love Rochelle's husband's one - "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it". I think I'll use it myself.
ReplyDeleteO Shiney Go Toilet
ReplyDeleteWhat our toddler daughter used to call from the back seat of the car on long journeys ( I need to go to the toilet)Its still used -
This was a delightful post, Willow. In our house, my kids couldn't say mozzerella, so we called it "pizza cheese" and instead of parmasan it was "shakey cheese." At 17, my oldest still writes "shakey cheese" on the grocery list!
ReplyDeleteCUTE!
ReplyDeleteOur favorite and most used is- do NOT be a "BINE-DARR." This is bestowed upon the person who is in a bad space...grumpy and being hard to get along with...another word for ogre!
Yep, "mazagine" was, and still is used at the manor!
ReplyDeleteI love Rochelle's husband's "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it." I'm adopting it, too.
I just love the things children say and words still regularly evolve in our house, it's just more fun to talk that way, but the ones I remember our daughter saying most are
ReplyDeletethe Little Mermalade - the Little Mermaid
Mountain Queens - Milton Keynes
Dan Dares - down stairs
and she would put er on lots of other words like
coat - coater
wash - washer
it was just endless and always delicious to hear!
Love this post, and the wonderful terms that you've cited here! Perfect!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite comes from my daughter, who has a doll that based on a character from "war-torn" London in World War two. My daughter refers to war-torn like it's a place Wartorn, London.
A butt in the hall of fame!
My grandkids say cute things all the time, but I couldn't think of any words. My ex-husband made up words all the time that stuck with me and the kids. Words like being "obsitious" when people are being difficult and "gazinda" like 2 gazinda 4 2 times. My son did write a note to a little girl who got him in trouble one time. It said, "I hate your gusts."
ReplyDeleteMy grandkids say cute things all the time, but I couldn't think of any words. My ex-husband made up words all the time that stuck with me and the kids. Words like being "obsitious" when people are being difficult and "gazinda" like 2 gazinda 4 2 times. My son did write a note to a little girl who got him in trouble one time. It said, "I hate your gusts."
ReplyDeletemy favourite Mom sayings,
ReplyDelete"well, that really frosts my fritters"
and "oh, suck a bean"
one of my nephews used to eat sour cream by the spoonful (bleck!), and he called it "this&that".
This post has really got me digging. I love it. Thanks!
I don't think I have any funny words, but I'm from Texas and other people often find my words funny. I say we were born with cotton in our ears and cotton in our mouths, and we can't really hear the distinction in the pronunciation of words, therefore all our words are funny. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteWhen my grandson was small he called bananas 'mingas' (? who knows) and the kitchen stool was the 'stand-tall'.
ReplyDeleteBa-stetti was always the pasta and marinara sauce the kids wanted every Sunday noon. My older daughter still carries on the Sunday tradition.
ReplyDeleteMy younger son had a language all his own. One day his grandmother heard him referring to a pair of gloves as 'drubs.'
ReplyDelete"No, sweetie," she said gently, "those are GLOVES."
"Hmmph," the three year old replied. "Wooks wike drubs to me."
This was fun to read! We still call windshield wipers "Wind Shypers." And when I was little I used to read the word "headache" as Heed- Achi. With the emphasis on the Achi part. Oh the English language -- speak it at your own risk, right?
ReplyDeletelove this post - and how it sparked so many shared memories from your readers!
ReplyDeleterefrigerators do lend themselves to funny new words. one kid in the family called them "reeferateher" - which cracked me up as i had an image of a "reefer ate her" maddness, eh???
My second son has made up all kinds of words, but there's only one that we seriously use. One day he pointed to a big brown UPS truck, and called it a "columby". As his grandfather was a professional columby driver, the name stuck. Doesn't it sound prettier than "UPS truck"?
ReplyDeleteOh it is such an endearing memory lane you are taking us back to. If only we captured these and wrote them down somewhere. Well, you did and can still remember a lot of these. Impressive, humbling and so sweet for you to share with all of us, giving us all permission to reminisce.
ReplyDeleteA Swedish blog friend enjoying this post ;)
ReplyDeleteAgneta
Ha! I love your daughter's word for the refrigerator..."flidge-a-later" - one can't help but smile! I think I'll adopt it.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, you are so right - all families have their own special, odd words and modes of communication. In England, for example, we have what our called inset days; which are days when we there is no school because the teachers are doing training work. One day, my little sister asked my mum, "Mum, is today an insect today?" Well, that really made us all laugh...and now, inset days are always called insect days :)
Out of the mouths of babes. My son used to call spaghetti, bisgetti. but I dont know how he came up with that. My brother and I used to say "doo-doo brain" when either one of us did a dumb thing. Now where did that come from? cute post.
ReplyDeleteI love-love "Insect days"!
ReplyDeleteI went to college with a girl named Brittany - her brothers couldn't pronounce her name when they were small so they called her "Brittansnee" which eventually got shortened to Snee - & that was the name that she used.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin's MIL calls tender moments tender vittles & the whole family has adopted that phrase.
Lastly, my mom typed up a recipe once with "viniall" instead of vanilla - & we've called it that ever since.
Willow, thanks so much for the shout-out! So sweet of you.
ReplyDeleteI love these little family idioms. They add a richness to our personal lore and history. This family-speak is the language of love.
On an aside, while attending a convent school as a child, my mother was amused to discover that one of my sisters when speaking a daily rote prayer, was actually saying the words "suffered under a bunch of violets" instead of "suffered under Pontius Pilate".
That is so adorable. I love the way kids misprounce words. Renee us to say I want pisgetti for dinner. Now you can e-mail her and have some fun..
ReplyDeleteyvonne
Why my grandaughter is a "bawaweena" and her daddy used to love sketti....and my friend's son used to call their pet named beuford "basterd"...it is so much fun the wonderful honest and silly things that kids say! :-)
ReplyDeleteOh Willow we have so many that I am not sure where to start. "A-pose to" for "supposed to" and "rah-dick-a-lass" for "ridiculas" still are said like this and by grown men no less. I have tried to correct them but they just can not get it right. They don't even have the excuse of being 6 years old. It is just sad because these words are now apart of all of our vocab and not one us can say them right without bring its slang counterpart. You are so right I think all families have these words.
ReplyDeleteDear Willow: I remember those skinny elephants in kindegarden. Dr Wayne Dyer said a child overheard his teacher refer to him as a "skinny elephant". The teacher discussing the student's behaviour stated the child was in fact a "disturbing element". As a child I could not pronounce my eldest sister's name, Beth, so I called her "Boo". She's been called Boo by me ever since! Then there was this little boy who called his border collie "nippa" instead of nipper. Whenever I see a border collie I think of "nippa" and that little boy.
ReplyDeleteThis posting is off hook, Willow,
ReplyDeletesailing way out there, and the buzz
is wonderful.
As kids we drove Mom crazy asking
for Ba-sketty, and talking about the
kitchen no-leium. My Texan wife
taught the kids to pass gas was to
"poot", and to defecate was "to make
pooty." My wife asks her mother to
make her "chocolate gravy", which
seems to be a kind of pudding made
in a fry pan on top of the stove.
If I beat my spouse to the bathroom
after a long car ride, she stands over
me saying, " Hey, I might could pee
myself."
Reminds me of the story of the four
year old on a car ride with his Mama.
He looked around furtively and
asked, "Mama, where's the
Sumbridges.?" Smiling the mother
replied, "Oh, they only come out
when your father is driving.".
Or those wonderful scenes in the
movie JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY
with Michael Keaton, when the
Greek gangster, struggling with
English called people "iceholes"
and "farging bastadidges."
Our Sharna when she was two years old kept saying "bonnets" emphatically and then looking sheepishly at us like "did you hear what I said?" She thought she was saying "bollocks"...
ReplyDeletewe had trouble getting thru the dinner prayer for awhile..'bless us o Lord for these thy gifts' became '..and freeze our gips'. i almost died from internal hemoraging suppressing laughter.
ReplyDeleteI work with kindergarten students and I love their vocabulary/pronunciation. It will just make you smile listening to them.
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Willow! I have so many of these, it's not funny. Eric used to tell the neighbors that "My mom gots maggots on her fidg-e-a-tor."
ReplyDelete(Make that magnets on my refrigerator)
We will forever say hepa-cotter and wobble at our house. That's helicopter and convertible out of the mouth of an 18mo old Taylor. ;)
ReplyDeleteI forgot about one my little brother said once--we had a priest visiting, and Eddie told him, (as my parents had evidently told EDDIE on occasion!) "Be sure to mastibate your food before you swallow it." We were probably all ex-communicated that night.
ReplyDeleteOh, Brush w/Color, that is HILarious!! I bet that priest talks about it to this day!
ReplyDeleteOh goodness, I am weeping with laughter. What a great bunch of stories!
ReplyDeleteMy own contributions:
So-poppers -- you know, like The Guiding Light.
Suede-o-nym -- when you write a book using another name.
Piss-ghetti -- goes great with marinara sauce.
Great memories!
My daughter would sometimes ask for an item by what it did rather than what it was...
ReplyDeleteketchup = dip it
bed = ni-ni ( night night)
and every store was Wal-Mart..just different colors
Red Wal-Mart = Target
Orange Wal-Mart = Home Depot
to this day will still use her favorite ( and ours)
"tooken"
Somebody tooken my shoes!
I got my picture tooken!
Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!
ReplyDeleteI would appreciate if a staff member here at willowmanor.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
Thomas
Hilarious -- and so endearing. And the comments following are all so priceless!
ReplyDeleteI can't think of a family verbal "funny," but one of my sons, when he was about three, saw someone shoot a bird at me from another car. He asked me what it was and I told him that it was an ugly gesture. The next time I happened upon an ugly motorist (this is LA!), my son stuck both hands out with his index fingers up and yelled "Take that bird!" Now, whenever my husband and I are mad at each other we'll do his altered hand gesture and inevitably start laughing.
my parents nearly fell out of their chairs when we were eating sushi when i was young and i pointed out the octopus's testicles. when they corrected me and explained they were 'tentatcles', of course the next thing they had to do was explain to me what the original word meant. salt and pepper shakers and a soy sauce bottle were all involved in the description as my mom, the very enlightened (i read 'where did i come from') one, did her best to shush me with a symbolic demonstration.
ReplyDeleteSince Speckly Woo first pointed to the crocodile character in her Peter Pan set and spoke the words 'cuddle cuddle', all crocodiles are now cuddle cuddles.
ReplyDeleteUrdu is the language at home and Tamil is the local language. our Urdu at home is twisted beyond recognition. so twisted that people think that we speak a different language when we talk fast.
ReplyDeleteIndia is the place to get a wide variety of English flavours. its hilarious actually. Our politicians love to speak English on the TV and the TV guys provide English subtitles, without which we cannot make out what they are talking about.
my sister's children call me 'mamadoo' An outsider will not know what it is.
When he was small, my son misunderstood the phrase "sopping wet." I never say it, so I think he probably picked it up from my mother, a woman given to hyperbolic phrases. Anyway, to Joe it was "sobbing wet." Even now, if I get caught in a little sprinkle outside, I'll come in the door and say, "I'm sobbing wet!" and it still makes me laugh.
ReplyDeleteThe post, as always, is delightful - but this is one of the cases where the comments are just as entertaining.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much everyone, for your delightful contributions to this comment forum! xx (I'm still giggling!)
ReplyDeleteMy children both love listening to musicals, and one of their current favorites is Jesus Christ Superstar.
ReplyDeleteTheir favorite song? Herod's Song, where he calls Jesus "King of the Jews."
I realized about a month in to listening to them sing along that they thought he was singing "King of the Juice." No wonder they love that song!
Funny post!
I am known in the family as Gigi...not because it is my name or initials...but because when my grandson first started talking his word for cookie sounded like gigi and he associated that with me...it stuck...It helps that GG also stands for Grandma Gail:)
ReplyDeletethere's always the Elton John song
ReplyDeletePa-pa-pa Penny and the Chest!
of course, that was sung by a teenager, so does it count?
and upon my telling a 4 year old that she has a butt fetish: "I am NOT a BUTT FISH!"
Hey willow I think I might have figured out how to leave a comment. Was great visiting this July.
ReplyDeleteTodays addition is priceless ~ have read through comments and laughed all the way, it brings back a lot of memories. My little neighbor boy couldn't say "S" and one day asked his grandma to make him a "hummer hausage handwich".
I seem to still hear adults sometimes say beckfast or liberry or kin-dee-garden. My own verson of a line from a Sunday School song of "happy as can be"
became "opyveese".
Of course must leave a "few" from our family's heritage of "mis-pronunski-ations" (Popeye- lots in that movie!)
My husband came from a family of 5 kids so there were many hand
-me-down phrases, His sister's list
was the best and included: Kitty-cat shoes,for fancy shoes, Big-Shot Hot Chocolate for a hot shot attitude and "clamsamseums" for chrysanthemums.
From our three kids the younger two seemed to produce the most memorial words or phrases. Our daughter, with 2 older brothers seemed to be talking when she
arrived! Her English grandmother stated at age 2 "she certainly is verbal!!" Her list included:
Hahshcloth = washcloth
Bro-bro = strooler
vidavator = refrigerator
up & down thing = headband for hair
high-up shoes = heels and
skreal = squirrel.
She came in the house one summer day and stated, "Mom it's sweat'in hot" that stuck and when we went on vacation to SD to visit
"Mt. Mushmore"that stayed as well.
Our #2 son called his older
brother Cha-na-nan (Jonathan)
When his dad would asks him, why he did something, he state, "because that's why I wanted too". He loved it when a Motor-icle zoomed past us in the car, or was delighted to spy an "old beetle tar" (VW). or "look a Bumle-bee" The Disney character, Pinnochio (sp?) was Nok-nok. Of he was completely honest when he summed it all up one time when faced with a large word by commenting (about age 3), "my little mouth can't say the word!"
me either sweetie!
remindes me of the comedian Brian Regan and "Whooked on Pahonics worked for me" funny act!
Hey willow I think I might have figured out how to leave a comment. Was great visiting this July.
ReplyDeleteTodays addition is priceless ~ have read through comments and laughed all the way, it brings back a lot of memories. My little neighbor boy couldn't say "S" and one day asked his grandma to make him a "hummer hausage handwich".
I seem to still hear adults sometimes say beckfast or liberry or kin-dee-garden. My own verson of a line from a Sunday School song of "happy as can be"
became "opyveese".
Of course must leave a "few" from our family's heritage of "mis-pronunski-ations" (Popeye- lots in that movie!)
My husband came from a family of 5 kids so there were many hand
-me-down phrases, His sister's list
was the best and included: Kitty-cat shoes,for fancy shoes, Big-Shot Hot Chocolate for a hot shot attitude and "clamsamseums" for chrysanthemums.
From our three kids the younger two seemed to produce the most memorial words or phrases. Our daughter, with 2 older brothers seemed to be talking when she
arrived! Her English grandmother stated at age 2 "she certainly is verbal!!" Her list included:
Hahshcloth = washcloth
Bro-bro = strooler
vidavator = refrigerator
up & down thing = headband for hair
high-up shoes = heels and
skreal = squirrel.
She came in the house one summer day and stated, "Mom it's sweat'in hot" that stuck and when we went on vacation to SD to visit
"Mt. Mushmore"that stayed as well.
Our #2 son called his older
brother Cha-na-nan (Jonathan)
When his dad would asks him, why he did something, he state, "because that's why I wanted too". He loved it when a Motor-icle zoomed past us in the car, or was delighted to spy an "old beetle tar" (VW). or "look a Bumle-bee" The Disney character, Pinnochio (sp?) was Nok-nok. Of he was completely honest when he summed it all up one time when faced with a large word by commenting (about age 3), "my little mouth can't say the word!"
me either sweetie!
remindes me of the comedian Brian Regan and "Whooked on Pahonics worked for me" funny act!
Hey willow I think I might have figured out how to leave a comment. Was great visiting this July.
ReplyDeleteTodays addition is priceless ~ have read through comments and laughed all the way, it brings back a lot of memories. My little neighbor boy couldn't say "S" and one day asked his grandma to make him a "hummer hausage handwich".
I seem to still hear adults sometimes say beckfast or liberry or kin-dee-garden. My own verson of a line from a Sunday School song of "happy as can be"
became "opyveese".
Of course must leave a "few" from our family's heritage of "mis-pronunski-ations" (Popeye- lots in that movie!)
My husband came from a family of 5 kids so there were many hand
-me-down phrases, His sister's list
was the best and included: Kitty-cat shoes,for fancy shoes, Big-Shot Hot Chocolate for a hot shot attitude and "clamsamseums" for chrysanthemums.
From our three kids the younger two seemed to produce the most memorial words or phrases. Our daughter, with 2 older brothers seemed to be talking when she
arrived! Her English grandmother stated at age 2 "she certainly is verbal!!" Her list included:
Hahshcloth = washcloth
Bro-bro = strooler
vidavator = refrigerator
up & down thing = headband for hair
high-up shoes = heels and
skreal = squirrel.
She came in the house one summer day and stated, "Mom it's sweat'in hot" that stuck and when we went on vacation to SD to visit
"Mt. Mushmore"that stayed as well.
Our #2 son called his older
brother Cha-na-nan (Jonathan)
When his dad would asks him, why he did something, he state, "because that's why I wanted too". He loved it when a Motor-icle zoomed past us in the car, or was delighted to spy an "old beetle tar" (VW). or "look a Bumle-bee" The Disney character, Pinnochio (sp?) was Nok-nok. Of he was completely honest when he summed it all up one time when faced with a large word by commenting (about age 3), "my little mouth can't say the word!"
me either sweetie!
remindes me of the comedian Brian Regan and "Whooked on Pahonics worked for me" funny act!
Our now seventeen year old coined "japanzees" and the "Specific" ocean when he was around three. His younger sister, now fourteen, did him one better, though, when she pounced on her unsuspecting father one day and with bared teeth announced she was a "fuh-ro-suss cantaloupe" come to gobble him up! Beware man-eating vegetables. :)
ReplyDeleteThese are all so wonderful! Thank you, Willow, for starting this chain of delightful rememberances!
ReplyDeleteWhen she was little, my daughter called the chicken on her plate 'tik tok', and that became her code word for any meat. "Puh-weeze, more tik tok?" Of course, now she's vegetarian. Go figure.
Years ago, when driving through a desert, my brother-in-law commented that the clouds ahead of us looked 'onimous'. We teased him so mercilessly about it for so long that I began to get confused as to which was correct, onimous or ominous?
Once, when my sis-in-law told my husband over the phone that she was expecting a boy, he jokingly told her she should name the baby "Sausage Head". She claims the connection was faulty, because she thought he had said "Sasha Chet" and wondered where he came up with the name! Now, whenever anyone in the family announces a pregnancy, they are advised to name the child "Sasha Chet"!
The best, though, are the local colloquialisms that we first teased, but teased so much that they became standard usage. Now anyone hearing us would assume we grew up locally, I suppose!
'Fer' instead of 'for'.
'needs washed'
'usta could' (used to be able to)
'I seen it' (you have to speak in a drawl when you say this one)
We've got lots of these, and we still call broccoli "barkly" as so named by my daughter during her Sesame Street years.
ReplyDeleteThere's a new one of the "21st Century sort." When texting my daughter Carly's name into a cell phone, the T9 tool chooses Barky instead. So, for the past several years, Carly is known as Barky in text messages and emails by all of us!
One of my family's words was "POODER" which to this day is what I and my grown sons call our pillows. This word came from my Father's (Austrian/German) family so perhaps it had roots in the their culture. If anyone knows I would love to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteMarshmallows= smashiatos
ReplyDeleteHot dogs= hoc docs
Bikini= bisquini
and
Loblaws(grocery store chain) = blahblahs
I also tease my sister for saying shebang bong bong. I don't even know where that came from, but she said it.
My mother pronounces ficus (the potted plant that people often name) fickus.
And the word troglodyte was turned into something inappropriate when my mother said it and I misheard.
Fifty years ago, Alastair Morrison, journalist and uni lecturer, as a comment on Austalians' penchant for dropping sylables, wrote a little book he called "Let's Talk Strine" (Let's talk Australian)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite from the book is,
Egg nishner: Device for cooling air.