 Slang words can be beautiful things. They can also be tasteless, tacky, &/or rude. Here’s a small selection of family-friendly slang terms I haven’t previously run into. I hope you enjoy them.
A sea-flea is a very fast motorboat that skips & bounces over the surface of the sea. It’s a Canadian term that appeared in 1950s. Geary is an adjective meaning fashionably stylish. Geary showed up in America in the late 1900s. Ratbaggery is a noun that appeared in Australia in the 1930s, meaning a display of eccentricity. Right fanny comes from 1925. It’s a noun meaning pathetic story. Blear is a verb meaning to stroll. It comes from Cambridge student-speak in the 1920s. The mid-1900s gave us the noun scrumpy rat, meaning habitual drunkard. Gen kiddy is a noun referring to a thoroughly good chap. The term was born in the 1950s among Royal Air Force members. And sheep-wash is an Australian/New Zealander term for poor quality liquor. I’d love to hear whether these terms were new for you. Comment away! Big thanks to this week’s sources: Collins Dictionary, Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang & Unconventional English, the OED & Hello Artsy.
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 This week let’s take a look at nouns containing ump. Bump came to us in the 1500s meaning a protuberance caused by a blow. It came from an earlier verb which meant to strike violently. It is likely from a Scandinavian source, & is also likely onomatopoieic. Lump showed up in English in the 1300s meaning a small mass of irregularly shaped material. Its source is unknown, though it may come from Danish, Dutch, or some other Germanic tongue. Jump is another noun of uncertain origin. It showed up in the 1500s meaning spring from the ground. Though nobody’s sure, it may have come from Swedish, French, German, or Old English. Grump appeared in the 1700s meaning surly remarks. By 1900 it also meant a person in ill humor. Though etymologists haven’t nailed it down, it most likely came from a Danish word meaning cruel. Pump may have come to us in the 1400s from a Dutch word meaning water, conduit, or pipe. Or possibly from Middle Low German, or maybe even from an onomatopoeic word North Sea sailors used to imitate the sound of a plunger. Clump didn’t show up until the late 1500s, used first to identify a group of shrubs of trees, meaning a cluster. It came from a Germanic source. Frump started out meaning a mocking speech, sneer, or snort when it showed up in English in the 1500s. By the later 1500 it grew into a verb meaning to mock, flaunt, or taunt, & by the mid-1600s grew back into a noun meaning a cross-tempered, unstylish person. And then there’s umpire, meaning arbitrator, mediator, or one who decides when others are in disagreement. Umpire came from a French word meaning odd number, as the mediator was often the third in a dispute between two. May all your umps be good umps. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, the OED, Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, & LooneyTunesCaps.  The word ego gets a lot of use, so here’s a bit of background on ego, along with a list of its cousins.
Ego showed up in English in the early 1700s in the field of metaphysics, meaning that which feels, acts, or thinks; the self. It came from the Latin word for I. The word ego got applied in psychoanalysis in the 1800s meaning the organized, conscious mediator between a person & reality. And by 1891 it began to mean conceit or self-aggrandizement. Some ego-related words & terms include: ego trip ego tripper egocentric egocentricity egoism egoist egomania egomaniac egosurfing egotism, egotize alter ego super ego egotheism May your ego successfully consciously mediate between you & reality. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, the OED, Etymonline, Pride, A Dictionary for the Vain, & Vecteezy.  Idioms can be so darned funny, especially when appreciated in a concentrated form. Here’s a pile of idioms that all begin with the word look. To appreciate them best, read them aloud somewhat speedily. I hope they’ll bring a smile.
Look high & low for something Look for trouble Look like a million bucks Look forward to something Look back on something Look down on something Look down one’s nose at someone Look at someone cross-eyed Look in on someone Look out for someone Look someone in the eye Look someone over Look over someone Look up to someone Look like a million dollars Look the other way Look like the cat that swallowed the canary Look like something the cat dragged in Look as if butter wouldn’t melt in one’s mouth Thanks for coming by & joining me in my appreciation of idioms. If any other look idioms come to mind, please add them in the comments. Big thanks to this week’s sources: NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary, The Idioms, Rosetta Stone, & Qaqooking.  Consider this quote:
“The higher they went, the darker it became, though it wasn’t the darkness of night, but rather more like a mixture of lurking shadows & evil intentions which oozed from the slimy, moss-covered cliffs & blotted out the light. A cruel wind shrieked through the rocks & the air was thick & heavy, as if it had been used several times before.” This was written by Norton Juster in his classic middle grade novel, The Phantom Tollbooth. I think it’s rather brilliant. Let’s take a look at the origin of some selected words from the passage. Lurking comes from lurk, which showed up in English in the 1300s from a Scandinavian source. It originally meant to hide or lie hidden, but since the late 1300s has meant to move about secretly or to escape observation. Oozed (the past tense of ooze) came to English from early Germanic tongues. Over the years ooze & its kin have had the meanings to flow as ooze, to percolate through pores, to emit in the shape of moisture, plus the nouns juice, & sap. Slimy comes from the word slime, which originated in Proto-Indo-European and came through Germanic languages to English. Along the way it’s had the meanings viscous, sticky, phlegmy, slippery, snail-like, smooth, miry, & muddy. Moss started out as a Proto-Indo-European word meaning damp. That original word not only grew into our word moss, but also grew into the words mucus, must, & musty, & the Lithuanian word for mold. Blotted is the past tense of blot, which is a bit of a mystery. It may have come from an Old French word meaning boil (the boil on one's skin sort of boil), or perhaps it came from an Old Norse word meaning stain. But have no fear; hard-working etymologists continue to duke it out over the source of blot & they are bound to have an answer at some point in the future. Heavy comes from Proto-Indo-European through Old English. It originally comes from a word meaning to grasp, which morphed in time to mean something having weight, then oozed further to pick up its figurative meanings important, grave, oppresive, slow, & dull. Juster’s word choice really served him well in this passage. May your word choice this week serve you well. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Collins Dictionary, Etymonline, Merriam Webster, the OED, & Jules Feiffer.  Given world events, I’m compelled to share these wise women’s thoughts on war. “[There is an] erroneous impression that this and other countries are at war with one another. They are not. Their governments, composed of men and responsible only to the men of each country, and backed by the majority of men who have caught the war and glory fever, have declared war on one another. The women of all these countries have not been consulted as to whether they would have war or not…” —Harriette Beanland “When we carry our eyes back through the long records of our history, we see wars of plunder, wars of conquest, wars of religion, wars of pride, wars of succession, wars of idle speculation, wars of unjust interference, and hardly among them one war of necessary self-defence in any of our essential or very important interests.” `—Anna Barbauld "If brains have brought us to what we are in now, I think it is time to allow our hearts to speak. When our sons are killed by the millions, let us, mothers, only try to do good by going to the kings and emperors without any other danger than a refusal.” —Rosika Schwimmer “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” —Jeanette Rankin “But the havoc wrought by war, which one compares with the havoc wrought in nature, is not an unavoidable fate before which man stands helpless. The natural forces which are the causes of war are human passions which it lies in our power to change.” —Ellen Key “If a child grows up with the idea of violence, that you get what you can by force, what kind of world will this be?” —Julinda Abu Nasr It’s a crying shame this wisdom doesn’t seem to penetrate the heads & hearts of the decision-makers. Thanks to this week’s sources: Women in World History, The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women, & Adobe.  This week, let’s take a look at words that appear to be disparaging, but are often used in a loving fashion — the words you might use to describe your best pal, sidekick, grandmother, or that “interesting’ neighbor.
Scrappy, meaning inclined to fight, showed up in English in the 1890s, & appears to have come from the word scrape (something one might be inclined to get if one is inclined to fight). Plucky showed up in the 1830s, meaning spiritied, determined, or courageous. It came from the adjective pluck, a colloquial synonym for courage. In the 1820s nutty meant crazy-in-love, but by the 1890s, crazy eclipsed the earlier meaning. Feisty showed up in American English in the 1890s, meaning exuberant, touchy, or aggressive. It may have come from one of two sources, or a marriage of the two. One possible source is a Middle English word that referred negatively to dogs (usually that fysting curre). Another possible source is a Norse word meaning fart. Wacky appeared in English in the 1930s, most likely from the idea that someone who acted wacky had been whacked in the head once too many times. It seems the noun whacky (fool) preceded the adjective wacky. Quirky appeared in the early 1800s meaning shifty or irregular. It wasn’t until the 1960s that quirky began to mean charmingly idiosyncratic. Attributed to the beatniks, kooky, meaning slighty strange or eccentric, showed up in American slang in the 1950s & is likely derived from the word cuckoo. May any apparently disparaging words thrown your way be delivered in a loving fashion. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, the OED, Etymonline, & Dreamstime.  Consider this John Gardner quote
“The society that scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” Along with pondering Gardner’s worthy idea, here are a few etymologies from the quote: Exalted (or exalt) comes from Proto-Indo-European through Old French. In exalt’s long history it has meant to grow or nourish, to give off vapor or flow out, to glorify, praise, or extol, & to raise or elevate. The word shoddiness has been around since the 1800s. It was born during the American Civil War & referred to the poor quality of government supplies arriving on the front lines. It seems to have come from a noun that established itself in the carpet factories, labeling the scraps left over after carpet making. The word plumbing comes from the Latin word plumbum, lead. In the 1400s it referred to lead fishing weights, then plumbing was used to mean working in lead, & soon came to mean pipes used to convey water (which these days might be made of copper, plastic, PVC, ABS, or galvanized steel). The word humble showed up in the 1200s from Proto-Indo-European through Old French. It comes from the word humus, meaning earth, & came to mean on the ground, or lowly. These days it mostly means submissive, respectful, modest & unassertive. May we exalt both the plumber and the philospher. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Carnegie, Merriam Webster. Etymonline, Collins Dictionary, the OED & Shutterstock.  This week let’s consider synonyms & near-synonyms of the word uncouth.
Boorish arrived in the 1560s meaning uncultured, uncouth, or offensively low-bred. It came from the word boor, meaning rustic countryman or peasant farmer from the Latin word for cow, bovis. Crass came from Latin & showed up in English in the 1500s meaning thick, coarse, or gross. By the 1600s it meant obtuse or grossly stupid. And today crass means insensitive or blundering. Vulgar appeared in English in the 1500s meaning usual, ordinary, or pertaining to the common people. What a surprise! Vulgar morphed within a century to mean coarse, illbred, or depraved. Why is it always the fancy rich people who determine such things? Crude, in a raw or unprepared state, appeared in English in the 1300s through Latin from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning raw flesh. By the 1600s it begane to mean lacking in the social graces. In the 1700s the word tacky appeared in English to refer to something sticky or adhesive. By the 1800s it added the meaning shabby, seedy, or in poor taste. In the 1300s, rude came to English meaning coarse, rough, or without finish from a Latin word meaning crude or unlearned. A bit later it morphed into meaning boorish, ignorant, or uncultured, which is its primary meaning today. And uncouth comes from Old English. It originally meant unknown or unidentified, which morphed to mean unusual, strange, unfamiliar, or suspicious, which oozed from there into unkind, unfriendly or rough. By the 1400s uncouth meant awkward, crude, & clumsy. And what about couth? Though modern English speakers joke as though couth isn’t a word, it was a word back in Middle English, meaning, to have power, to be able to, then in the 1890s English speakers embraced it as a back-formation of uncouth, meaning cultured or refined. Somehow it slipped out of usage during the 1900s. May couthness return to our beleaguered world. Thanks to this week’s sources: Etymonline, the OED, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary, & Anamilla.  In English, the glottal stop doesn’t get the respect it deserves, but it’s a rare bird, so here’s my attempt to throw some light on the beauty of an underappreciated phoneme. In English, the often reclusive glotttal stop is most easily observed in the word uh-oh. When an English speaker says uh or oh there is no glottal stop, but upon joining those two simple syllables, the glottal stop comes to light, a glorious tap of the back of the tongue to roof of the mouth — stopping the flow of air for a split second & providing a glimpse of the oft-overlooked glottal stop. A double t or double d can also offer a glimpse of the glottal stop when English speakers get tired or lazy or speak too quickly, & instead of clearly articulating little or middle or rattle, we jump over the double letter & simply tap the back of our tongue to the roof of our mouth. Across the pond, the glottal stop is easily observable in multiple dialects, including cockney & Liverpuddlian. Imagine Eliza Dolittle saying, “rotten little puddle.” Glottal stops are rife in Polynesian languages & are typically represented by an apostrophe: Hawai’i, Maita’i roa (I am fine in Tahitian), ‘ohana (family in Hawaiian), & ‘ura (dance in Maori). Finnish, Arabic, Wakashan, Salish, Semitic, Malay & Indonesian languages employ glottal stops, too. Hawaians call the glottal stop ʻokina, Tahitians, ‘eta, the Maori call it ‘amata, & the Samoans, koma liliu. In Arabic, a glottal stop is noted with a character called the hamza (ء). The next time you utter the word uh-oh, may you find yourself appreciating the beauty of the glottal stop. Big thanks to this week’s sources: Te Reo Maori Kuki 'Airani , Merriam Webster, Wikipedia, The OED, & PencilKings. |
I write for teens & tweens, bake bread, play music, and ponder the wonder of words in a foggy little town on California's central coast.
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