Creating your own name for something

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:04 AM

Hey Kat, you brought up a really good point. Everyone is out for the tourist dollars but what's a tourist to do when he/she has to go? Lord knows we all hate those portapottys. When I am in a strange but facinating town I love to walk around and take in the sights'n things. Eventually though nature calls. What's a person to do? In a way I can't blame communities for not putting up more facilities. For some reason bathrooms (W/C's) are targets for vandals and would be writers. It would be nice though if places with a lot of tourist draw had a place to stop. Ok, to the topic/thread maybe a "needapee"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 06:38 AM

Well, I have to say, Tucker, I never wrote on the darn things, even being a would-be writer!:-)

And, you can't tell it from the above, but I DO know how to spell and use good grammar. Sorry, everybody, for all the mistakes, but I get impatient and miss the spontaneous outburst of *ahem* brilliance, if I go out to the WP then bring it back in here!

katlaughing and casting her spell....checker, NOT!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:23 AM

Kat,

I don't care about typos, but this

". I suggested ginat litter boxes behind strategically places shrubs, as young men we constantly using my backyard to pee in, when visitng the nextdoor minimart! "

had me wondering for a second if you were a guy. I thought, Kathleen? Naaaaaah.

Margie

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:39 AM

Margie, yer right, of course, Kathleen IS a gyrl's name and I own up to it most o'the time, tho I was a 'tomboy"

Here's what shoulda been:"I suggested giant litter boxes behind strategically placed shrubs, as young men were constantly using my backyard to pee in, when visitng the nextdoor minimart! "

It was a hoot! One time when my youngest was brand new and I'd just gotten her to sleep, we lived in a little house behind a bigger one. The alley ran right by our garage. Jr. High boys used to come stand between my house & garage and carry on. Well, one day they went too far. As I said, I'd just gotten her to sleep and I was GOING to take a nap! I heard these two out there and one of them started to urinate! I got up, picked up my now ex's huge old black powder UNLOADED pistol, opened up the window shade and told them they better put it back in their pants and never try that again! I have NEVER seen anybody take off so fast like a jackrabbit! And, they never did come back; my yard was "pee-free"!

kat

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:54 AM

Which reminds me, my same friend who calls Canned Foods stores Deadfood store, when we're traveling together, asks to stop at a "Peezit".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 02:42 PM

On this subject, friends of mine used to say, "I have to zim" when they needed to relieve nature. From "zimmer", from mispronounced (and incorrect?) German "Frauenzimmer", meaning "ladies' room". Take that, Roger!

One of those friends pronounced "Target" in French 15 years ago. You might not have been the only person to invent it, Cara.

Speaking of which, "flutterby" is so common that I was told as a child it's the origin of "butterfly". (It's not.) "Willie the Shakes" is in a Joni Mitchell song, I forget which. I don't know whether she invented it. "Fix Or Repair Daily" is indeed old, and so is "Fix It Again, Tony".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: John Wood
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:12 PM

A friend of mine was standing in front of the mirror fixing her face,when her young son asked ``Mummy,why do you use fakeup ?´´

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:25 PM

SNARF - is what I call aerosol whipped cream.
"W" SAUCE - is what I call the steak sauce because I got tired of arguing about how to pronounce it.
RADA FRADA FORDA SEEDIS SAW - I had a friend years ago who taught me this. It makes an excellent phrase of many uses. Said loudly, it can make swearing nearly obsolete. But my friend's favorite thing to do was to whisper it urgently into someone's ear and wait for a reaction!
RATTSHMINKLES! - is another favorite pseudo-swearword.
FRAMUS - the name given to any unidentified mechanical part.
BERMIS - the name given to any body part for which a name is not known or remembered. BLOP - a measurement of anything having the consistency of mayonnaise - not unlike a dollop

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:34 PM

NOT EXACTLY A NAME FOR SOMETHING, RATHER AN EXPRESSION I USE WHEN I LOSE SOMETHING (which is quite often due to being completely disorganized). Rather than turning the air blue when something is lost I usually shout "LOST, GONE FOREVER, GONE THE WAY OF THE GREAT GUANO BIRD". I developed this expression when the kids were around. A few weeks ago I went over to our daughters house and as I walked across the porch I heard her shouting ~ You guessed it "LOST, GONE FOREVER, GONE THE WAY OF THE GREAT GUANO BIRD".

CAP'T BOB

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:50 PM

Oh, Cara, but you see, mon cher, I have the last name to prove it: LaFrance! Instruments at forty paces? I warn you, I wield a wicked fiddle bow!**Big Grin**

Actually, I didn't hear it until about 6 years ago when I moved back to here and my gyrlfriend brought up going there one day.

We had an orange cat who topped the scales at 18-20lbs, depending on how much he ate that day. His name was Hawkeye (the kid's loved MASH) and he was a gentle giant. Our favourite nickname for him was "Lil' Kittl'" which he loved. My gyrlfriend added the letters "een" to the end of her cats' names, so we did, too. Now my Kelpie (black with gold shot through her beauteous coat)comes to Kelpeen; she loves the singsongy way it rolls out.

My gyrls and I used to try to figure out words to go with the three letters on people's license plates in CT. One day we saw one that looked like PKU, instead of using the "f" word, from then on we said "Puck U"!

There is a flying horse or something in a children's book series which is called Flutterby. Has anyone ever seent eh kid's book called "CDB", as in "See the bee"? The whole book is like that, quite entertaining.

We went to a high school variety show where a woman read the story of Cinderella, but the first letter of various words was always switched around. Ever after, we teased our dog about being a "prandsome hince"; that progressed to my mom being Harry Mudson; me being Lat KaFrance...well...you get the idea. It's a lot of fun; try it!

latkaughing

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:55 PM

The humor writer Patrick McMannis calls people "elbows" as in "Sometimes my friend Retch can be a real elbow."
Fake swearing from Walt Kelly (creator of Pogo for those of you old enough to know better) "Razzlefratz, blagdrabit, RAlph!"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bert
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 05:06 PM

Uh Oh! now we're onto pseudo swear words. We used to use "metamorphosing polliwog"

Bert.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:11 PM

When my kids were wee I invented a monster named Gordy to keep them from the basement. I did this by making a pretense of going into the basement for something and then making sounds ( my best theactrics(?) of the monster attacking me. It worked too well. My poor basement is known city wide as the home of Gordy. My stories to my children and nephews are now local folklore. Such is language. Nothing is so lasting as to hear a tale you made up retold by a young adult to his/her child embellished with their own ideas. Poor Gordy was never really mean, and my children knew it. He and Puff are to this day docile dragons, still magic.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ShimmrBlu
Date: 01 May 99 - 02:33 AM

One time my friend was trying to sleep and she kept getting woken up by another friend calling over and over. Finally she yelled into the phone, "Kevin, I was aspleet!!!"

Another time I was telling someone about a dream I had over the phone and I said, "It was such a fierd weeling!"

A friend's mom teaches her kids to call it "traf"... (read it backwards...)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:08 AM

My youngest daughter, now 21, has always mixed up certain words, with a very slight dyslexia, we thing. Anyway, when working at the stables, she always used a "forkpitch" or, sometimes, a "porkfitch" to clean out the old straw.

When she was 7 yrs old, after watching the movie, "Beckett", and seeing his his effigy near the end, she asked,"What did they do? Did they pour cement all over him?"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:18 AM

the term for your hair when it is all messed up after sleeping (especially toddlers after their nap)= pillow perm.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 01 May 99 - 07:51 PM

AT one point while visiting my pottery teacher{an elderly woman} in New Hampshire I made the small joke that I was so bald I was "fallicly impered" but I think I misspronounced it alittle......She just looked at me with out cracking a smile and said "I'm so sorry"......Golly words can get one in such hot water,{espeicially when you can't spell.} I need a spell-check implant....Cheers Guy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:14 PM

Guy,just enjoy those times when you screw up and no one knows it. Like playing Dixie when it should be the Star Spangled Banner, smile, sing, laugh and giggle all the way home

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ShimmrBlu
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:35 PM

Just the other day I was trying to make a list of flower names and my friend described one that she couldn't remember the name for and I said, "Oh! Drangonsnap!!"

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.

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: 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: 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: 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: 03 May 99 - 05:59 PM

That works Alice. Thanks

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: 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: 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: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 04:39 AM

Thank you Dai

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:45 PM

Sorry, I meant Englebart.

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: 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: 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: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:13 PM

Band Name: Almost Framus

~S~

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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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.