Creating your own name for something

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Jan 09 - 09:30 PM

Not a thing, but a practice..
My father's name for being out on the rantan, the booze, or especially the pull, was 'padgeowling.'
From a tomcat, Padge (Patch) that we once had, and his reponse to a queen calling, or an intruder on his 'patch.'

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Nickhere
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:56 PM

My wife and I come up with the odd neologism from time to time, for example for a while 'to blair' or 'to tell a blair' was cuurency in our house after Tony Blair gave his speech on Saddam and the WMD. For example "don't you know it's naughty to tell blairs?" or "Are you serious or is that a blair?" It had a meaning of more than a lie, more of a cheeky bare-faced lie that knew it was a lie, which was so preposterous yet the teller still expected it to be swallowed hook line and sinker.

One day my wife came up with 'we have too many respensibilties" which she had meant to say was 'expenses' and 'responsibilities' but they got combined in her drive for economy of word.

Another day the word 'irrelephant' popped into my head out of nowhere. It means 'an irrelevant elephant' Now I just have to find an occasion to use it. Still waiting.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:54 PM

wash off the coshapookas

My grandson is going to love that one! Thanks!

He loves it when he sneezes because I tease him about having the Sneezles.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Nickhere
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:48 PM

My mother had so many words of her own invention that I once wrote a small dictionary as a kind of satire. For example, she never used pints or litres. Rather, liquids were measured in 'squarts' 'sups' and 'sqooshes' Washing up liquid was 'squz'

For example "put a good squart of squz in the dishes when you're washing them"

"...and don't forget to skoosh them round" (I suppose the nearest translation would be 'agitate')

Juts in case you think all her words began with 's':

"Shake out your livers and wash off the coshapookas"

(trans: 'get up out of bed, get your circulation going / get some air, empty your bladders & wash the snots out of your nose')

This might be said to lazy children lying-in on a Saturday morning.

There were many, many more. Can't remember all of them these days.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Arnamus Mariko
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:25 PM

Arnamus...Arnamus is a Demon...well the Demon of Pain...and this has nothing to do with Religion...it has to do with fact...when a child sees something they don't like 97.106 times out of 100.00 times they name it Arnamus...but I doubt the whole Dust Bunnies thing is true because it's only something that hurts them...unless the child has asthma then it would hurt them. Just wanted to clear that up...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 10:51 PM

I have owned three cars in my life. They were named respectively the Baboon, the Fodge, and the Speeding Blintz. You can probably figure out why.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:02 PM

Hideobilia - Helen Schneyers word for ugly gifts - ugly but not to be disposed of.
The Chinese Marching Band - a threat to misbehaving kitties. It involves the youth in Asia. Think about it.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:43 PM

Plumb Outta--Pamida (Walmart type discount store)
Erk--a word trying to get in edgewise
RV/Caravan--Tin Tent
Belly gaskets or African Roofing shingles--pancakes

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Unusual Person
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:20 PM

Do you know what a 'mabice' is? It's that little speck of dirt on the TV, that really annoys you, but you don't remove for months and months and it drives you mad. This is one of mine, feel free to use it. Dates back to 1981.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Jim, Sheffield, UK - http://www.jimbarter.co
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:30 PM

What a very amusing discussion!

We have a local shopping centre (mall) called 'Meadowhall' a lot of the locals call it 'Meadowhell'

On a similar note, 'Hollywood' has become 'Hollowwood'

;-)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: PageOfCups
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 03:03 PM

Random memories dredged up by this thread:

Places:
    The Post Awful
    Radio Shack-up (yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices)
    Pizza Slut

Newspapers:
    Onion-Trib (Union Tribune)
    The Smellay Times (L.A. Times)
    The Crimes (Times)
    The Outdate (the Update)

Things:
    Collyrobbles (childhood term for brussels sprouts)
    Schmedlap (an indeterminate quantity, similar to but larger than a dollop)

Cussing substitutes:
    Sunday obituary!!!
    and my favorite: Fornicate with waterfowl!

And to show that I came by this language-warping honestly, when I was in junior high, I helped a local newspaper columnist write a column on "fractured French". Examples:
    Pas de deux == I do not care to eat chicken.
    Dans le tren == "C'mon baby, do the locomotion with me"

My suggestion for the guitar-necked bedpan? The Pee-ano.

PoC

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 01:32 PM

Bettpfannair

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 01:23 PM

A Butt-ar?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 09:38 AM

I have a unique instrument - a Guitar neck attached to an enamelled steel hospital bedpan that I got off E-bay a while ago.

(Sounds a bit tinny - been thinking of setting it up Nashville style.)

So what should it be called? :-) (nott too rude please!)

Robin

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sam L
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 10:03 AM

There's a "thingy" thread above y'all might lend your talents to.

We used to have a chronology of kid evolution worked out, but I can't remember all of them at once. They begin in the belly as Peaseblossoms. Evolve into Peanuts. Tater-heads. Dirndles. Poindexters. I can't remember the rest, but they come to mind when I see them.

   Umbrellas are brumbellos. The schmoozing you abstain from is called Swashalizing, like at certain art-gallery openings, attended by perverted Artophiles. Sarts is the brand-name of an existential breath-mint. "Abstaining" from sex isn't a word I made up, but I like it. Abstain. As in "I'm afraid I must recuse myself from these proceedings, due to a conflict of interest".

   My daughter used to say Impointment. Serious things were impointment, or you might have an impointment.
   
Blunstenence is a perceivable lack of infinite ramifications. A thing that has nothing to do with the issue at hand or with anything else is Blunstenent.

    Steve Miller's "Pompatus" of Love was a corruption of the "Puppetudes" of love in the Duke of Earl, I heard recently from an interview with his keyboardist.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:06 AM

I've been known to exclaim, "Gracious snakes!" Brings to mind visions of serpents in top hats, spats, and canes.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 01:52 AM

My college daughter doesn't swear by saying, "Cheese and rice!"
A fellow I dated in school muttered "dadblasted fratterap" which does sound pretty awful.
We were pretty strict about no name calling, but that led to some creative usage: He is such a mortal crouton. How can you act like such a blithering diphthong?
When the same daughter was younger, and would become really annoyed with one of her big brothers or with irresponsible skiers on the slopes, she would pronounce them, "You bumbyflako!" which is obviously a serious insult from a three year old.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 10:40 PM

One niece loved "acamony and shees." This has gone through several permutations, including Acrimony and Sneeze and Matrimony and Sleeze. She'll graduate from college next Spring and head off to microbiology grad school; she's a bit embarassed when we offer her Antimony and Freeze or some other, created on the spot, variation.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 09:27 PM

OK, finally I'll try to get into the spirit of this thread. When my son was small, he watched Sesame Street, and he was impressed by Bert's paper clip collection. He couldn't pronounce "paper clip collection"--it came out "paper cliption." Also, he wasn't clear on the distinction between the collection and the individual paper clips. So the whole family adopted "paper cliption" as the term for paper clip.

The clerk at the local liquor store used to give my son a lollipop whenever he accompanied us there. So we started calling the liquor store "the lollipop shop." At least my son always understood where we were going!

Around Minnesota, we have a few pet names for our local institutions. Target Stores, which began here and have their headquarters here, is frequently given a fake French pronunciation: Tar-zhay. It sounds so much more upscale to say you bought something at Tarzhay.

The Minnesota Twins are called the Twinks when they're not doing well. Likewise, the Vikings are sometimes called the Vi-queens. The Star-Tribune is often called the Strib. Heileman's Special Export, a brand of beer that comes in a green bottle, and seems to be a little stronger than other beers, has long been called "Green Death." I don't know why it's the only brand of beer that has an unofficial nickname. The company has been trying to get us to call it Special Ex.

My college roommate was a strict Baptist who never swore. But he loved saying, "Got dandruff! Some of it itches!" or "Cheese and crackers got all muddy!"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:12 PM

My younger son was frightened of BOMSTERS.
There are three types of bomsters.
One type has big claws, and hisses and turns red when plunged into boiling water.
One type wears suits and carries machine guns and talks oddly.
One type lives under your bed and is likely to bite your feet off if you get out of bed in the middle of the night.
All bomsters, all scary.

Somehow the planes that drop things that explode, and the little furry critters that gnaw everything, escaped both the term and the fear.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:05 PM

We also maintain an assortment of words that I assumed were usual, until I used them outside the family, and then thought they were family terms, growing up in Oklahoma, with all our relatives in Kansas, but as an adult I have found them in OED as "archaic Scottish" terms. Go figure. (My father's mother's family was Scot and I assume they somehow held on.)
Grouse: to complain verbally; lower pitched than whining but tends to go on. (He keeps grousing about his taxes.)
Faunch: to express dissatisfaction physically as well as verbally; more than grousing, but short of tantrum; likely to involve eyerolling, headshaking, putting feet down harder than necessary, possibly door slamming. (He is faunching over the umpire's call.)
We also call portapotties "Donnikers" which I had understood is what carnival folk call them, but I recently heard a Scot friend refer to the "donnies" at a festival.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:57 PM

Our kids when small were "bobbins" from the movie "Willow."
My sister-in-law says that when you walk into a room and forget why you came, you have "destinesia."
Umbrellas are "underbloats."
We sing "Aardvark carols" as in "Aardvark herald angels sing..."
When my nephew was small, dust bunnies became "Arnamus" and we never knew why, nor why he was frightened of them.
My younger daughter spoke of fastening "beat belts", her "belbow", and my personal favorite, "belly beans."

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:51 PM

"Oobleck" is a fantastic name that originated with Dr. Seuss. His earlier books were not the famous rhyming ones but prose tales with his hallmark goofiness and sketches. In "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" the king is fed up with the usual weather, rain, sun, snow, and fog, and commands his wizards to make something new come down from his sky. They come up with oobleck which sticks to everything, and the page boy Bartholomew has to find a way to get rid of it all.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Ely
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:12 PM

Extremely dorky people were "zone-dweebies" when I was in middle school. I have absolutely no idea where we came up with that one.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Armen Tanzerian
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 11:54 AM

All dogs are "Poogie" (soft G), or "Poogie-boy" until formally introduced. Cats are "pusser-catter".

Small children are "squonkers".

Such devices as the Intelli-Touch or Korg are "tunerators".

And, as a corollary, exceptionally dorky people are said to have their "weenerators turned all the way up" or "weenerators on full".




Armen "Day-dee-zweet" Tanzerian

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Ely
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 11:11 AM

I'm not even sure how to spell this, but when my brother and I were too wiggly as children, our parents told us not to be so "rootchy" (rutchy? Same "oo" sound as "book"). When we were stubborn, they borrowed from Richard Scarry and told us not to be "pig-won'ts".

My 1986 Nissan station wagon was the "gerbil", presumably because it was tan and had white license-plate "buck teeth".

Bill D--we once had a dog named Ootek, who had many nicknames, one of which was "Ooblek". What an awful thought! (On the other hand, he was also called Oozie).

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:46 PM

how about 'furrin' langwige' speakers trying to cope.....

The Saturday Evening Post used to have semi-regular humor pieces making fun of garbled language...including Heinrich Schnibble..(who was once going to "take der bangenspitzer and geschplatten der schnortenzoomers" that were scaring his cows..)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 09:20 PM

When she was small my daughter used to make up sensible alternatives for words she didn't know, so:

Nettles became "stingleaves"
A fly-swatter was a "batterbee"
A ladle was a "bean getter"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:13 PM

Band Name: Almost Framus

~S~

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 04:19 PM

oh, yeah...and my young cousin, at age 4, managed to translate "refrigerator" into "batumfritter", much to the amusement of the family for decades since...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 04:16 PM

somehow missed this back in '99!

a friend used to call things with no particular nomenclature .."gizmachos"...as in "hand me that gizmacho over there"

my wife's family had a word for those dishes you cook with lots of leftovers..."ooblek"...it has since come to refer also to most of the class of things like 'Hamburger helper' and such ...especially if the final result has been changed and added to until it barely resembles the original. (this does NOT include soups & stews that are liquid based..only the stuff in a skillet that does not pour. How's that for precision?)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 03:03 PM

When my daughter was little, kitchen cupboards were "covereds," and still are, as there is a certain logic there.

But my grandma was the family champion: her favourite flowers were the Dagwood and the Philadelphium.

Favourite books: How to Kill a Mockingbird and The Man in the Grey Flannels.

Favourite song: Seventy-five Trombones.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:45 PM

Sorry, I meant Englebart.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:44 PM

Englehardt made the first computer mouse way back in 1964. It's come a long, long way since then.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:24 PM

Well, we oughta call them SUVs "carucks", I recon -- an obvious joining of cars and trucks. We call CDs coasters, expecially wqhen they fail in recording, since that's all they're good for!

A

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 12:42 PM

Have you ever noticed how many everyday things in modern life are usually called by letters, not names? TV, VCR, DVD, CD, ATM, ATV, SUV—am I missing any?

I think this trend is deplorable, and we ought to squelch it right away, before our language becomes an alphabet soup. We ought to invent short, convenient, real words for those things, not abbreviations. I approve of the British practice of calling the television a "telly" for example. And, don't Brits call the VCR a "video," or is it the videocassette that is called a "video"?

I propose that we start calling CDs "records" since that word is under-used right now. Sure, people now only use "record" when they're talking about vinyl, but I remember when long-playing records were called LPs, to distinguish them from 45s and 78s. (I guess it was too cumbersome to call them thirty-three-and-a-thirds.) When 45s and 78s fell into relative disuse, people dropped the term LP and started calling them records. Now it seems logical to do the same thing with CDs. After all, etymologically, "record" only means something that is recorded. The medium is irrelevant. There is no reason a CD shouldn't be called a record.

In Minnesota, it is common to call the ATM a "cash machine." When visiting St. Louis, I was surprised that a store clerk didn't know what I meant by "cash machine," but I hope the term spreads. I think "cash machine" got started as a shortening of "Instant Cash machine." Instant Cash was the first brand of ATM that appeared in Minnesota.

Whoever thought of calling a computer mouse a "mouse" was brilliant. I'm sure glad it's not called a PCID—a point-and-click input device—or whatever the alternative was.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:46 AM

Back in Canton, Ohio you could subscribe to the "Canton Repository" or, as we called it, the "Canton Suppository."

We've also subscribed or read the "Quincy Whirled Pig" (Herald-Whig), the
Akron "Bacon Journey" (Beacon-Journal), the Cleveland "Dane Peeler" (Plain Dealer), the Geauga "Whine Bleeder" (Times-Leader), the South Bend "Tribute" (Tribune), and "Elkhartiya Pravda" (Elkhart Truth).

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:37 AM

Our afternoon tabloid paper is called the Telecrap (cos it is, even tho the proprietors call it the Daily Telegraph).

And at work at end of day we balance the till going thru a rigglymarole - first leave the shop & get the key from the manager's desk, then go into the workroom & open the locked filing cabinet to get the safe key (fortunately it's sitting in a cash box that has lost it's key yonks ago), then back to the shop, run the end of day processes, finally open the safe & put the money & reports away, then put the keys back. Sometimes the safe needs to be opened first as the person who opened up has conscientiously locked the empty canvas money sack with it's little plastic coin bags in the safe.

sandra

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 01:13 AM

This has been a hoot to re-read, Allan! Thanks!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 12:57 AM

I saw the brand name, "Framus" in a thread about banjos and had to chuckle. That is a word I've often used as a replacement word for various items - some imaginary. "I think I know what is wrong with your car - you probably have a broken framus." Or "If I only had a framus I could be finished with this much sooner." In such a context, the "a" usually has a sound such as the one in the word, "maybe".

You can see this and a few others in my posts above.

I started to create a new thread on the subject of replacement words but then remembered this old thread. Please add your own mini-dictionary of terms.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 04:39 AM

Thank you Dai

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 04 May 99 - 10:41 AM

Tucker - it's called a kneeling mat. Or a hassock.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 04 May 99 - 10:07 AM

Kids have a way of naming their worlds. Many kids I have known were unable to pronounce "spaghetti" and so it came out BUSKETTI more often than not. My younger daughter, now nearly 15, used to call the midnight bandits RACCAHOONS.

When I was working as a nurse's aide, we had a patient who was aphasic (or had some other such problem with her ability to communicate). She was only capable of producing one set of sounds, "DEEDILA-MAIDILA" which she used conversationally while she pantomimed. For quite some time after she was discharged, whenever one of us could not think of the right word for something, we would substitute with DEEDILA-MAIDILA. I still use it from time to time. But of course, people look at me oddly.

My high school choir director urged us to substitute "WATERMELON" for any forgotten lyrics. He swore that nobody would ever notice. To my knowledge, nobody ever did.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: dan
Date: 03 May 99 - 06:49 PM

Great thread. We used to have a Dodge Ram we called "the goat." A movie theatre is the "walk-in," one for the road a "roady," a budweiser a "red snapper," and, thanks to my little girl, what you look behind you in is a "ruvier mirror."

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 03 May 99 - 05:59 PM

That works Alice. Thanks

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 03 May 99 - 10:37 AM

..ummm... how about 'prayer mat', Tucker?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:57 PM

Good Lord! What a Thread. Anyone got a name for the piece of cardboard or carpet you use when you are kneeling doing garden work? just a thought, I haven't heard it named yet.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:43 PM

That's funny Banjer. My husband's name is Jack, and I have a lot of fun with it. Gosh, there's Jack sh*t, Jack of all trades, Jackass, and of course, I asked Jack. (You've gotta say that last one out loud.) Marg

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Banjer
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:21 PM

Another thread, the one about Jack Mostly Folk changing his moniker to Mudjack and Katlaughing's response just reminded me of a term that has been used at the shop for some time now. When someone has a need to reach higher than physicaly possible just standing on his feet he will call to someone nearby "Bring me an assjack" and will usually receive anything from a crate to a ladder depending on his need.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:17 PM

I finally remembered one that my son used to use to scare his little sisters. Years ago, he was a great fan of Dr. Who, I wasn't, but apparently there was some sort of creature they all knew from the show, called the Bumanji.

Anyway whenever we would go through the automatic carwash and the long thick strips of fabric would begin to sway and shimmy their way towards the windshield, Colin would tell his sisters it was the Bumanji coming to get them. We still joke about it whenever we get the cars washed.