Your Family's 'Secret Language' Part Two

Title: Your Family's 'Secret Language' Part Two

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We've been through such heavy stuff today. Two views at the beginning of the show on what kind of mayor. Either Zohran Mamdani, or Andrew Cuomo would make two contrasting views on what kind of mayor they would be in ways that they might try to directly influence the Middle east situation. Then we heard Kyle Cheney from Politico on ways that the Trump administration may be illegally trying to send out of state military troops, National Guard troops from Texas, for example, to Oregon or Chicago above the wishes of the governors and the mayors there, and this, just now on foreign aid.

For our last six or seven minutes, we are going to end on the lighter side with a second call in on a question we asked a few weeks ago because we had so many more calls than we could take. What are some made up words that only your family says? What are some made up words that only your family says? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call right up. You'll get right on because we're doing this in very limited time today.

It is a follow up because we did this last month and we had so much fun. We left so many words on the cutting room floor, so to speak, that we figured we would do a part two, and we're doing it now because we have a few minutes at the end of the show. What are some made up words that only your family says? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. If you're lost, there was a story earlier this month also in The Washington Post about how families have made up words that only they use. It's like a family dialect which linguists call a familect.

Many words in the family lexicon pop up when kids mispronounce something that's a common way or make one up when they're really little. A few examples that we heard or that were in the original article, dippadee for any condiment you can dunk your food into, noo-noos for noodles. Those were in the article. Some of the ones callers came up with, caller Olivia's family said, "Holoshing." Holoshing, am I saying it right? Holoshing, which she said, "Is the feeling of getting into clean sheets in your bed. Holoshing, and you move your feet around and it feels so good and comfy." Holoshing.

Urge, Monique in Tarrytown told us, to her family, an urge is a person who annoys you. "Stop being such an urge." Give us a ring right now. Tell us about a word from your family dictionary. Your favorite familect expression, 212-433-WNYC, call or text. We'll sneak as many as we can in right after this. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to as much of your family dialect examples as we can fit in in these couple of minutes here. Michael in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Michael.

Michael: Hey, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got?

Michael: Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Michael: We call that part of your anatomy between your nostrils that runs to your top lip, we call that your schnoodle.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for using your noodle and your schnoodle to call in with that. Peg in Montclair, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Peg: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Our word phrase originated by my mother, it was and is skinny finger. That means a small amount of something, usually food. My son, when he was around 10 years old, he went to a birthday party, and he did not care for cake. When the people sing it and they asked him, "Oh, how much would you like?" He said, "Oh, just a skinny finger." They looked at him like he was crazy.

Brian Lehrer: That became the family word for the small piece of cake or pie that you would take. Got it. David in Manhattan, what's the familect word?

David: A longtime listener, frequent caller, Brian, two words. One was my creation. When I was a little kid, I used to call anything that was really soft and it became a family word, bougie, like the coat of a dog or a cat or a mink is bougie. The other was my mother's favorite appellation for a town in the middle of nowhere, which was snippachuck.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Off to Snippachuck. Dan in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Dan.

Dan: Hey. Hi. When I was a kid, my father, if somebody passed gas, he would say, "I believe somebody expoculated." I thought that was a real word for a long time.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for explaining expoculation, I think. Peter in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Peter.

Peter: Hi, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: How are you?

Peter: I have a special word in the family for a particularly delicious piece of meat or the cheek of a fish. We call it knurkle. K-N-U-R-K-L-E, knurkle.

Brian Lehrer: Knurkle, yes. I hope you have a nice piece of nurkle for lunch. One along the same lines in the text. That'll be the last one. Listener writes, "One of my nephews calls fried mozzarella sticks cheeserella sticks. The whole family has adopted it since." Thanks for your family dialect examples.

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