Family Slang

Let’s forget for a minute Tolstoy’s observation about families. There is one thing nearly every family--happy or not so happy–-has in common, and that’s a private vocabulary.

Take a look at this article from Richard Nordquist’s website:

http://grammar.about.com/od/grammarf...amilySlang.htm

I bet your own parents and siblings, as well as your circle of friends, roommates, etc. have created special words unique to that select group. How about sharing some of these nonce words with your NitLet family? Just post ‘em in this thread.

If you tell us yours, I’ll tell you mine.

It's hard to share too much, Aunt Sheky. About 90% of it is either scatological or intimate, and I'm not prepared to get into that online. But some of the household chores have euphemisms. A haircut (or a green haircut) means mowing the lawn. Farmer or farmer job means composting. Some of our expressions refer to religion. I respect my wife's Buddhism, but I call some of it "this chanting thing" (which is taken from an old Clash song). She is likewise respectful of my Christianity, although she calls the hellfire services of some Evangelicals "monkey shows," and calls their practitioners "Monkey Show Christians."

The largest category after scatological-sexual is unpleasant people. Vampire, Rat, Thief, Psycho, Mummy (the Egyptian variety), Ghost, and Demon are all individuals known to me. Rat, Thief, Psycho, and Mummy were female colleagues of my wife's. The names were flexible enough to do multiple duty if necessary (Psycho Sharon and Psycho Sally, for example, or Thief Jessica and Thief Nancy).

The monster group is interesting. Mummy was a long ago supervisor of limited worth and doubtful skin care. Vampire was someone who married into my family and did little good while there (the implicit joke being that a vampire can't enter a house unless someone is dumb enough to invite it in). Ghost (or actually xiao gui--more of a household spirit than a ghost) is what my wife calls her sister-in-law, because she is always around but seldom seen. But my wife's other brother calls her Pet because her husband brings meals to her in their bedroom so she doesn't have to eat with the rest of them. (Did I mention that my Chinese family lives under one roof?) Personally I find Ghost-Pet sweet and call her mei mei--little sister. And Demon is just another name for Vampire (who I do not find remotely sweet).

Okay, those are mine. Now keep your promise and tell me yours.

In my family, we have our very own placeholder: bebec. At first, it was the name we coined for the shabby piglet that the legendary mangaka Osamu Tezuka placed in his comics ("Black Jack" and "Buddha", among others) whenever he didn't care what a character or a facial expression should look like. With time, bebec became our placeholder for anything at all.

"What was that actor's name? You know, the fifth hobbit in The Hobbit?"

"John Bebec."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pompey Bum

Okay, those are mine. Now keep your promise and tell me yours.

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Some of the slang in this household really isn’t “appropriate” for a family website. But I can contribute a slightly scatological term, possibly widely-used beyond my family: “skid mark” – n., a smudge on the back of an infant’s diaper indicating a near miss or a false alarm. In most cases, a skid mark is a relief, unless the child happens to be wearing extremely loose drawers.

There are many euphemisms for money, especially lack of it. My bitter half coined a word that sounds like “raymie,” from the old expression “dough, re, mi.” I’ve stolen one from P. G. Wodehouse: “oil de palm.”

Multiple food terms:
“Zag” – family slang for lasagna. Somewhat similar to the more common “za,” for “pizza,”except our word is constructed from the middle part of the word not the end.

In my vegan days, I (force)fed my fam plenty of non-meat entrees. We had ratatouille on the menu long before the animated movie made the word known. But naturally when the kids were little, they couldn’t pronounce the name of the vegetable dish, so they called it “ratville.” Which was okay, until one day when I was taking one of my daughters for a walk. In her childhood, her voice carried far and wide. As we passed a porch full of neighbors, she asked, “What are we having for supper tonight, Mom? Ratville?” You can imagine the looks I got.

While we’re on the subject of food, what does your family call the little bits of food that cling to one’s face before using a napkin? Years ago, the New York Times humorist, Russell Baker, offered the term “wog.” As an example Baker offered the scenario of an aide at a State Dinner whispering to the POTUS: “Excuse me, Mr. President, but you seem to have a fish wog on your cheek.” We used the term for years, until I found out to my horror that at one time it was an extremely offensive ethnic slur. (Wonder how Baker walked that one back.)

Cute lil' thread we got going here! Makes for an interesting and amusing read so far. Therefore, here's a small contribution of mine. I have to say at first that I can't share too many "family" slang as we always and only speak German in my—let's call it "biological family" (mother, sis, and so on). Not even German, by the way, but the particular Styrian dialect of my home village. As for my "almost wedded" family (this one consisting of a still-not-wedded-as-of-yet-but-I-did-propose-as-soon-as-mariage-became-a-legal-possibility-over-here boyfriend), well, we only ever speak French. So it would be too hard to translate slang expressions, which would loose all their flavor in the process, too.
But there's one word that everybody will understand, I guess. I don't know why or when my bf and I started to abbreviate the word "cigarette" (do pronounce it the French way if you want to make it classier—it's still just a darn fag, though). And now, when we're watching a movie in the evening and feel the craving for a cigarette, we'd always ask: "Garette?" Oh, and maybe you'll like this one, too, because it's mid-way between child-speak and a way of mimicking an English word. Whenever we have champagne (or some cheaper bubbly when the end of a month draws nearer), we use the word "bubulle". It's either pronounced the French way, which means diphthongized (on how to pronounce it, take a look here: http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/u_2.htm — I'm not sure that's how one could learn the right pronunciation, though), and has to do with the French child-speak where the first syllable is doubled ("bulle" means bubble, so in child-speak that becomes "bubulle"). Or the word is pronounced the way a French would say "beubeulle" (another diphthong, http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/eu.htm). And, which I always found hilarious, the French say "beubeulle"—when they want to pronounce the English word "bubble"!