Invented words

**gnome** · June-29-09, 11:00 AM

Inspired by GrumpyOldLady's contribution to the firefly thread. She wrote that her grandchildren called fireflies, blinky bugs. Many times children re-purpose words or phrases that become common terms within a family. Many times those words describe something in a more percise fashion, other times they are just linguistic malformations that are just plan cute.

When I was a little gnome I used the phrase "a baby bit" to denote a small serving of food. To this day, we still use that phrase.

What are some invented words in your family?

**Vic_doucette** · June-29-09, 11:27 AM

This doesn't come from my family, but the children of friends refer to the leftover blue globs of toothpaste in the bathroom sink as "smurfs."

**Ray1936** · June-29-09, 11:31 AM

Pee pee house. I use it a lot. The location as well as the words.

**gnome** · June-29-09, 11:39 AM

Pizza bones for leftover pizza crusts.

**alsodave** · June-29-09, 02:51 PM

When Mom would try to get us to eat something that didn't look appetizing, she made us take a "no thank you" bite. "Have some asparagus souffle, alsodave." "No thank you, Mom." "Here, have a no thank you bite." Occasionally, the no thank you bite turned into a full helping [[or three). Most of the time, we would have preferred to have another swig of cod liver oil than eat any more than one no thank you bite!

**Maxine1958** · June-29-09, 06:20 PM

The difference between a little butter on your toast and a LOT of butter on your toast was called 'a little lotta'. Which meant something in the middle. The phrase came to be used for many things. "Give the dog a little lotta of the leftover chicken."

**Detroitej72** · June-29-09, 06:28 PM

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

Anything that was gross was called yucko.

And my ex and I had a word called krabchuck, used to describe anything that was bad or questionable. We coined the term after watching hockey, and a former player, Igor Kravchuck was kind of dirty with his play, and the name sort of snowballed from there.

**Maof** · June-29-09, 07:41 PM

does "blowin' chuncks" count

**terridarlin** · June-29-09, 08:18 PM

We still use these today, something my daughter said when she was younger, babeing suit and spaghetti with meat bulbs.

**grumpyoldlady** · June-29-09, 08:29 PM

Can't leave out "basketti" for spaghetti

**grumpyoldlady** · June-29-09, 08:30 PM

Gnome....I'm pleased that my posting about my grandchildren's "blinky bugs" was inspiration for this thread. Thank you!

**jams** · June-29-09, 08:35 PM

Why "Papa" and "Nana" instead of "Grandpa" and "Grandma"?

**vetalalumni** · June-29-09, 10:21 PM

Mommy milk = milk from breast-feeding mother.

**Gistok** · June-29-09, 10:36 PM

I remember comedian Rich Hall as part of his comedy act would call made up words... sniglets. One that comes to mind is when you nearly trip on carpeting [[where there was absolutely nothing there to trip on)... it was called "strumbling".

Some that I used to use with a buddy when we were younger were words with "-age" endings.... such as someone who needed a good slap on the face... it was "slappage"... or if you were dripping a beverage [[or lord knows what) it was "drippage"... or if you fell or were going to fall there was "slippage".... or one especially unpleasant one was if the dog slobbered on you, you would have some "droolage"...

**eriedearie** · June-29-09, 11:19 PM

When our youngest son was about three years old, he coined the term "chork pocks" for pork chops.

He also couldn't say "up-side-down" properly. It always came out "up-down-side."

Spaghetti became "skeds" - these three terms are still used in our family and he will be 36 this summer.

The moon became "noon" due to my baby sister's hearing impairment. She's 42 and we still call the moon - the noon.

BTW - grumpy - we had some neighbors over tonight sitting on the porch and the lightening bugs came out. Our friends were commenting on them and I relayed the "blinky bugs" story. They thought that was such a cute name for them!

**vetalalumni** · June-29-09, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by eriedearie

The moon became "noon" due to my baby sister's hearing impairment. She's 42 and we still call the moon - the noon.

My oldest son has always loved the night sky. During his early pre-school days, he felt the moon was broken if and when it was not completely full. He referred to this phenomenon as a "moon broke" scenario.

In very serious tone he'd say "Look daddy, moon broke!". This was his concerned attempt to inform me so that I or someone else could fix it right away.

**MoparDan** · June-30-09, 06:40 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

I remember comedian Rich Hall as part of his comedy act would call made up words... sniglets. One that comes to mind is when you nearly trip on carpeting [[where there was absolutely nothing there to trip on)... it was called "strumbling".

One sniglet I use on a regular basis is "Optigoop"...that crap you rub out of your eyes after waking up in the morning.

There's one my mom always used to describe anything when her mind when blank. I realized later on it wasn't just her as I've heard other people say it. It's pronounced doo-ma-fla-chee. I've used it at times when telling my kids something like "Get that damn...dumaflatchey...out of the house now!".

**rajdet** · June-30-09, 07:15 AM

MoparDan
That stuff that comes out of your eyes in the morning is not "Optigoop", they're "eye boogars".

**MoparDan** · June-30-09, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by rajdet

MoparDan
That stuff that comes out of your eyes in the morning is not "Optigoop", they're "eye boogars".

I could've sworn it was "Optigoop".
I did find this though:
http://www.petermanseye.com/curiosit...nth-word-march
Optigoop -- n. The goopy stuff you find in the corner of your eyes when you wake up in the morning.

I'll deduce when it's still in a gel-like form, it's "Optigoop"; when it's dried it's "Eye Boogers". How does that sound?

**gnome** · June-30-09, 07:32 AM

I love this thread...the noon, moon broke, meat bulbs ... priceless.

thank you for the smiles.

**Locke09** · June-30-09, 10:19 AM

I have a relative who called underpants "drips" when she was a little girl [[I guess because they dripped water when you hung them to dry overnight after handwashing). She did it to avoid saying "panties" out loud. It's a code word now for the women in the family. If a female in the family says she needs to go to Victoria Secret to buy some new drips, most of the men don't know what she's talking about. But it does pique their curiosity

**grumpyoldlady** · June-30-09, 04:48 PM

My grandkids also call bananas "nanners" and a crescent moon has become a "nanner moon".

**eriedearie** · July-01-09, 06:53 AM

WARNING - IF YOU ARE EATING OR DRINKING SOMETHING - DO NOT READ THIS POST -

Just remembered one that my great uncle George in North Carolina used: The stuff that comes out of your throat in the morning - geezer goo.

**MoparDan** · July-01-09, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by eriedearie

WARNING - IF YOU ARE EATING OR DRINKING SOMETHING - DO NOT READ THIS POST -

Just remembered one that my great uncle George in North Carolina used: The stuff that comes out of your throat in the morning - geezer goo.

After ignoring the disclaimer, I think I've had enough coffee.

You do realize when you write something like that, it's like spreading sugar on the ground to scare off ants.