Your Family's 'Secret Language'

Title: Your Family's 'Secret Language' [music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and for the last few minutes of the show, we're opening up the phones for a call-in on the question, what are some made-up words that only your family says? Obviously, after being through another round of heavy conversations today, we're going to end on a lighter note. This time, it's the question, what are some made-up words that only your family says? 212-433-WNYC. Call or text, 212-433-9692. Why do we ask this? There was a story this month in The Washington Post about how families have made-up words that only they use. It's like a family dialect.

Linguists call this a familect. There's actually a linguist word for those words that have come up only in your family. Often, because a little kid mispronounces something, or something like that. They call it a familect. Many words in the family lexicon pop up when kids mispronounce something, and then stick or just make up a word when kids are really little. Then those words linger in the family for years, maybe generations. Who has one? 212-433-WNYC, and a story behind it? 212-433-9692, call or text.

Few examples from the article, and I'll throw one in from me and from our intern Veto. Dipadee, D-I-P-A-D-E-E. I think I'm saying it right. Dipadee for any condiment that you dunk your food into, like ranch or ketchup. Dipadee. Noonoos for noodles. Bye-bye, meaning literally go to sleep, but also figuratively, as in, "My computer went bye-bye." Before we go bye-bye at noon, give us a ring to tell us about a word from your family dictionary. Oh, they're flooding in already, so I'm going to stop this in just a second.

A pick from our intern, Uncle Bicey, that's a jumbled-up version of the phrase unbuckle my seat. Oh, it's uncle by sea. Let me say it right. Uncle by sea for unbuckle my seat, I guess that our intern said to his mom when he was five years old, and he couldn't unbuckle his seat belt. Uncle by sea. Over the years, it's morphed into needing to buckle up, as in, "Wait, don't pull out of the driveway. I need uncle by sea." I have one from a branch of my family where someone, as a little kid, called the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Nazonazo, so it became the Nazonazo Bridge forever.

Do you have any words like that that have changed meaning over the years? Thanks to The Washington Post for the article that inspired this. Looks like we're going to get a bunch. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Call or text, and we'll take them after this.

[MUSIC - Marden Hill: Hijack]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Judging from our caller board and our text stream, everybody has these stories of made-up words that only your family says. Let's just cut through a bunch into these. Misha in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Get us started. Hi, Misha.

Misha: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. A word that was used a lot in my family was when someone annoyed you was uj, so they were an uj.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for not being an uj. Monique in Tarrytown, you're on WNYC. Hi, Monique.

Monique: Hi. Good morning. We use the word peek-peek in order to say Windex for the glass tabletop in the kitchen. Onomatopoeic for the Windex.

Brian Lehrer: Because that's the sound that it makes when you spray it.

Monique: That's right. You peek-peek the table.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. John in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, John.

John: The in-laws have a word we've been trying to find the root of for many years. It's called mudgel and it's like a mudgel. Put a little mudgel of something into a recipe. Sometimes you could mudgel into a conversation. It's a little of something. Any ideas?

Brian Lehrer: Of what the origin might be? No. Maybe it was one of those things that some little kid said. No, I don't have any ideas. If anybody does, text it to us if you've ever heard mudjel used as a word for those things. Some of the texts coming in, Gaborka, meaning nothing. Dishy for dishwasher. Foofing for sighing, "He foofed." Gungalunga for when something is delicious, "It's so gungalunga." Blipper for TV remotes, "Pick up the blipper." Toestickers for flip flops, and Olivia in Brooklyn has one. Hi, Olivia. You're on WNYC.

Olivia: Hey, Brian, thanks for taking my call. My family uses this word, the holloshing, which I always thought was maybe a Yiddishism, but I think it's totally made up, which is the feeling of getting into clean sheets in your bed, and you move your feet around, and it feels so good and comfy. It's really evocative. I don't know if there's any other way to describe that feeling.

Brian Lehrer: Holloshing around in your bed after laundry day?

Olivia: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Olivia, thank you very much. Lynn in Spring Lake, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lynn.

Lynn: Hi. How are you? Our word is higgle and our definition is a crazy hairstyle. The reason why it developed is our family sits around playing the dictionary game, and we all voted for that definition, which, of course, was incorrect, and it has stuck around for almost 20 years. We always get a good laugh when someone walks by and we say, "Oh, my gosh, look at that higgle," and the person has no idea what we're talking about.

Brian Lehrer: Have you seen that Jennifer Coolidge commercial with the higgle that's running-- Never mind. Lynn, thank you very much. Eileen and Livingston, you're on WNYC. Hi, Eileen.

Eileen: Hi. We call Parmesan cheese shaky cheese. Even though there's no people small enough that cannot pronounce Parmesan anymore, it just stuck. It's shaky cheese.

Brian Lehrer: I think if you say shaky cheese, almost everybody is going to think Parmesan. That's cool, Eileen. Thank you. Kyle in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kyle.

Kyle: Hi. The word is doer boss, as in the boss of what we're going to do. Apparently, I said it when I was a kid because I wanted to have some say in the family activities, and my family never let me forget it.

Brian Lehrer: I like that one. We could apply that to some of our political discussions, too. You're not the doer boss of me, Kyle in Brooklyn. Some more that are coming up in texts, "As a child, I called a bent antenna on a car a bentimentina and was furious no one knew what I was talking about. Now we all like to point out bentimentinas." Another one, probbles for difficult issues. Probbles. Can I even say this? Pocopicomites. Something like that from the spelling. Pocopicomites for strange noises in the house. "I hear some Pocopicomites in the wall." Tragaster for a combo of tragedy and disaster. It's a Tragaster. Hannah in Cambridge, Mass, you're on WNYC. Hi, Hannah.

Hannah: Hi. We, in my family, call rubber spatulas pot lickers because it's a much better word than rubber spatula, and it's the word in my mother's language. We never knew that other people didn't call it that because it's such a good descriptor.

Brian Lehrer: Rubber spatulas have come under a lot of scrutiny these days for some of the PFAs in them, or maybe it's more of the hard plastic and not the rubber, but I don't know. That's a story in the Health Press. Can we get one more in? How about Paul in Brooklyn? Paul, you're on WNYC. Hi.

Paul: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. The origin of this word, my brother tells me, is it was the name of a demon he and his friends invented that lived in the stairway, but what I remember is that he used this word-- He hated school when he was about eight years old-

Brian Lehrer: Quick.

Paul: -and he would run into the house, rip off his clip-on top--

Brian Lehrer: It was buchinoi for thank God it's finished, which, unfortunately, we are now.

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