Invented words

**Gistok** · July-01-09, 02:36 PM

Although this is not an invented word.... I have an anecdote that is reminiscent of one...

Back in the late 1980's the University of Detroit and Mercy College planned a merging of the 2 institutions. I was going to school there [[Mercy) at the time to finish my Bachelor's degree.

One of my professors there [[Dr. Daniel Shoemaker) attended a meeting he had with the Sisters of Mercy and the Jesuits who ran the 2 schools. They were trying to decide what new name to give the combined institution.

One of the nuns came up with the name "Catholic University of Michigan". Dr. Shoemaker, always one with a dry wit, leaned over and whispered something into the ear of the nun, who's face then turned beet red.... and the nun then promptly said that that was not a good choice. [[Eventually they settled on "University of Detroit Mercy".)

What did the professor whisper into the nun's ear? What the acronym for her suggested school name means in slang....

**rb336** · July-01-09, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

"Catholic University of Michigan"

Ah, what could have been

cheddar bob · July-01-09, 03:46 PM

One of my favorite sniglets was, "H2OT" - The water that comes out of the hose first on a hot day.

**Blueidone** · July-01-09, 04:29 PM

Jams: In my family, we had to come up with different grandmother and grandfather names because with divorces and re-marriages there were too may of them. Thus, I became Nani [[pronounced Nanny...was supposed to be Nana, but the first grandchild decided Nani was better and it stuck), my ex-husbands wife became Grammy, and their mother's mother was Grandma.

There were only two grandfathers, so they became Pa and Papa Don.

**Blueidone** · July-01-09, 04:32 PM

Pacifiers were "suckees"

Not really a new word...but I still remember the fact that my mother would always refer to someone who was pregnant as either "p.g." or "preggo"...but NEVER would she say it out loud...it was always in a whisper like it was something to hide.

**Django** · July-01-09, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitej72

Grandma used to tell my to go shoo shoo when I was a wee lad.

Anything that was gross was called yucko.

Yucko was our family code word for #2, until I turned about 11 yrs old and my mom, for some reason asked me in front of a bunch of grown ups if I had to "go yucko" before we left a party, thats when I had to ask my mom to retire that term.

My little sister thought Richard Stands was a pretty important person to be included in the pledge of allegiance.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, unto the republic for Richard Stands, one nation,,,,,,,

My beloved Grandpa had some gems.
Rum less = Romulus Mi.
Pee kin pie= Pecan pie.

**the ed** · July-24-09, 10:36 PM

some word use pisses me off to the highest of piss-tisity
[[thankew Robin Harris)

**eriedearie** · July-25-09, 12:23 AM

In our family pacifiers are called "ninnies" - mom says I coined that word when I first learned to talk.

In Canada they call them "soothers" - that's a good one too!

**eriedearie** · July-25-09, 12:32 AM

^^that post made me remember this one.

When our brother was born my mom breast fed him. My little sister always referred to that as "T-Time" - She would hear our brother crying when he woke up and she would go running to mom to tell her it was "T-Time" - So that's another term our family uses to indicate that it's time for the baby to be fed.

**CornBot** · July-25-09, 10:21 AM

The first time my older son saw a pizza with sliced black olives on it, he gasped, "Blueberries!" So ever since, pizza with black olives is blueberry pizza [[and he's 24 now). The same kid came running from our front window all excited because "It SNEW!" Which, if you think about it, makes better sense than what's 'correct:' blow/blew, throw/threw...snow/snowed. And yeah, we also still say, Look, it snew!

An invented word from my more distant past is what my family calls a bathroom. I will have to use phonetics, because I not know how to write in Italian: buh-KOW-zoo. I did not know until fairly recently that this is not a real word, but a corruption of an English word: back house. Pronounced back-a house-oo by those with a heavy Italian accent. Originated, as far as I know [[and really, precious little about this), in the part of Detroit called "caga loopu" which I do know for sure is another English phrase colored with Italian... car loop. So called because of the [[long gone) street car barns at Harper and Gratiot.

Oh, and seeing 'rum less' reminds me of how my dad used to say Port Huron - port urine.

I do love how English is so continually evolving and how our own personal twists and turns on the language make it so interesting.

**Jimaz** · July-25-09, 04:32 PM

Port Huron - port urine.

Jjaba is fond of calling it "porch urine."

I knew someone from Wales who pronounced "right here" as "rye cheer." Andy Griffith pronounced it the same way. There was a PBS special long ago that explained that much of the Appalachian accent was inherited from the old country and preserved.

A former girlfriend mistakenly thought that the phrase "taken for granted" was "taken for granite" -- which does make sense, in a way.

As kids, mother didn't like to hear foul language. She asked my brother to make up a word to use instead of swearing. He coined the word "humpsticks" which today sounds more vulgar than any word he would have known at that age.

**gnome** · July-25-09, 10:38 PM

I had some family over for Christmas and took the kids aside and told them they could do anything, go anywhere, but they were not allowed to touch the cactus.

About 10 mintes go by and my youngest runs in to tell me about her cousin, "Dad!, Emily grabbed the cactipus and it grabbed her back!!"

It's been a cactipus ever since.

ps: love the snew

**Gistok** · July-25-09, 11:01 PM

What are those thin paper oval shaped rings [[from a dispenser) for sitting on a public toilet called? ...... ass gaskets!

**grumpyoldlady** · July-25-09, 11:32 PM

Love the ass gaskets!
Once I saw a weather crawl on the bottom of the screen that had thunderstorms spelled as "thunderstroms"...so they've been thunderstroms ever since.

**elganned** · July-27-09, 12:16 AM

Stuff left at the top or bottom of the stairs to be moved when convenient are called "as-you-go"s in my house.

**CornBot** · July-27-09, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by grumpyoldlady

Love the ass gaskets!
Once I saw a weather crawl on the bottom of the screen that had thunderstorms spelled as "thunderstroms"...so they've been thunderstroms ever since.

The word looks Viking, spelled that way... like it's the surname of Thor, Norse god of thunder. Perfect fit.

BTW because of a typo on a package 30 yrs ago, it's 'mariglods' that I plant in my flowerbeds.