Making Things Harder Just Because

           Do we really need cumbersome words when simple ones will do? I’ve somehow gotten onto the mailing lists of several sites that share long doozies that will only make us look ridiculous if we use them:

          Terpsichorean. This relates to dancing. “Oh, her terpsichorean skills were amazing.”  Pedantic + Snooty = You will never get invited back.

          Sprachgefuhl. This means a sense of the natural character of a language.  Give me a break—you use this word and no one will think you have it!

          Veridical.  First of all, people will think you’re trying to say vertical. It means true to reality, but why not just say true to reality?

          Eidolon.  This is an idealized person or thing. In this time of scrutiny and criticism, does anyone even do this anymore?

Obnubulate. This means to darken or shadow something. Can’t you just picture yourself saying, “I hope those Tenebrous clouds don’t obnubulate our wedding.”  Then, “Hey, where did the groom go?  Honey?  Honey?”

          Horripilation. Okay, I’ll admit I like this one, but only because it sounds like something horrible.  It actually means the hair on our skin standing up due to cold or fear.

          I think I’ll end with Peripeteia, because it’s something all of us would like: it’s a suddenly reversal of fortune.  Although we only want that one if it’s a grand surprise in the upward direction, right?

          While you await your peripeteia, check out my Youtube Mom videos for hundreds of easy life hacks.

Inside Info

          You think you speak English fluently. You think you have a decent vocabulary.  And then you meet someone so embedded in their hobby, that they have an entire vocabulary you’ve never heard of. 

          Just talk to a pro wrestler. You’ll hear about “blading,” where these guys actually cut themselves with a “gig” razor blade to create drama and look injured. A “job” is losing a match so the other guy will look stronger. Some wrestlers have no other job than to be a jobber.  “Kayfabe” is keeping the script a secret. It goes on and on.

          Let’s jump to the inside lingo of cat shows. “Furnishings” are not the number of sofas a cat has torn to shreds, but the hair inside the ears. A “UFO” is not a space traveling cat, but the United Feline Organization. And “Cat wash” is not a typo of car wash, but can be a bathing bag that supposedly keeps owner and cat calm during the bathing process. But it isn’t all hoity toity, there’s also the “Moggy,” a cat show for non-pedigreed cats.  

         We all like movies, but that world has its own secret language as well. The electrician is called the “Juicer.” A “Barney” is a blanket used to muffle camera noise. A “Blimp” is a box that does the same thing. A “Dope Sheet” isn’t a list of idiots on the set; it’s a list of scenes that have already been filmed. A “Squib” is a capsule of fake blood, used to look like a bullet wound (and wouldn’t this be useful to the wrestlers?) Finally, “Alan Smithee” is the only pseudonym a director can use if it’s a real stinker and they don’t want to be associated with it!

          The game show, Truth or Consequences, used to pick someone from the audience to “speak” in their occupational lingo. I watched, as a kid, fascinated. Little did I know I’d grow up to marry St. Bob, who hosted that show after Bob Barker!  And yes, like all couples, we have our secret language, too. But those examples are, well, secret.

But it's no secret that you can learn hundreds of fast life hacks right here, on my Youtube Mom channel.

What's Your Word?

            It occurs to me that St. Bob could add some delightful words to the dictionary. You may feel you could do the same.

          Here are just three of his creations. 

          “Hand me that Frabba-snabbitz,” is his favorite. When he can’t think of  Doo-hickey, Whatchamacallit, or ThingamaBOB, dare I say, he simply invents his own catch-all term.

          Another is Wang-doodle, actually a synonym of Frabba-snabbitz. In all fairness, this was the name of a hotdog joint when he was growing up in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Today a Whang-doodle, with an H, is a strip of bacon wrapped in a spiral around a frankfurter.  After doing this research, I can hardly wait to see the pop-up ads I get.

          And last is Yacka-dacka-dooey. This is used in place of the one-syllable “Yay.”  It reminds me of Fred Flintstone’s, “Yabba Dabba Doo!”

         And now I have increased your vocabulary by three whole words. Well, “words” in quotation marks.

          Feel free to tell me your own invented words. Meanwhile, be sure to watch my short Youtube Mom videos for all kinds of life hacks and brilliant advice.