Family Slang

Post by **joni** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:05 am

My uncle coined the term “gritnu” for the crunchy burned bits of food left over when cooking. It’s most likely a play on gristle. When my cousins were little they would cry out “gritnu gritnu” and my uncle would feed them directly from the pan. Now my entire extended family uses gritnu in place of any word because it is perfect.

freddy · Post by **freddy** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:10 am

We still call the library the larbeebee because that’s what I said when I was learning to talk.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:16 am

my parents still call tighty-whities "big boys" because that's what we called them when my brother transitioned from diapers to normal underwear.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:25 am

oh "keyed up," I saw your other comment Jona

But that's just a Texas-ism, it's not unique to my family!

Other Weird Texas Shit My Family Says:
- "in a rigor" is a synonym for being keyed up. "Your mother's in a rigor because she can't find her keys"
- using the phrase "coupla three" to mean "a few." "I'll be there in a coupla three minutes" or "honey bring me a coupla three pecans"
- Saying "bless their heart" about people who are stupid. "Well bless his heart, he doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain"
- lots of folksy sayings. My grandma used to say "Lord, I can't draw my own breath!" when she'd get a bad card playing this elaborate version of gin rummy my family plays called "onz."

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:01 am

This is the best thread yet.

gritnu: what??
big boys: perfect
bless their heart: all of my British and Irish colleagues say "ah, bless 'em" 'bout dummies.

I was in my 20's before I learned that the word mewy (miooey?) was not a real word but was actually invented by my mother to describe the texture of bad tomatoes or generally slimy foods. I am pretty sure my older sister still thinks it is something everyone says.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:38 am

I had a friend in high school whose family called picnic blankets “sit-upons”

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:45 am

Also everyone in my (admittedly small) immediate family unit calls everyone else “Chuckie” or “Chuck.” When I was growing up it was a constant back-and-forth of “Chuck!!” “which one??” “The old one!” etc. I actually think it comes from old regional Northern English slang of calling people “Duck” (to say “hey how are you,” you say “ay up, me duck?”). It seems like a short jump from Duck to Chuck but I need to ask my parents.

When we moved to the US my mom thought the family restaurant chain “Cracker Barrel” was hilarious so Chuckie mutated into “Chuck E. Barrel” and then don’t get me started on Chuck E. Cheese.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:05 pm

"Wowee's Wenches" is a term used by a baby friend of our family to refer to my dad's wrenches that we then adopted to refer to any of his tools.
"Wesley's Wrenches" would be the proper term.

There's so many more that I can't remember. Will ask my mum and report back.

tomcarroll.online · Post by **tomcarroll.online** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:19 pm

Not family slang, but family pronunciation. My dad says the DAY, in TuesDAY, like DEE. So he'll say over the phone, "Your mother and I are thinking about coming on MonDEE or TuesDEE." He was 3rd generation Southern Californian, so a think it's a hold out from an older Californian accent. Also my grandfather pronounced Simi Valley, as suMEE Valley.

astral hellion · Post by **astral hellion** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:21 pm

We call the heel of bread “the ankle.”

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:22 pm

wow!!! The ankle!
I love all of these

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:39 pm

Claire- I remember that people call each other Chuck in Wallace and Gromit and they have a distinctly Yorkshire accent. A clue?

tomcarroll.online- My mom also says Mondee and Tuesdee! I think it is something she adopted after moving into the Northern Arizona mountains (from Tucson, Arizona). Do not know why. It is one of those things she does that makes my sister and I give each other 'a mom is trying to be cute' look. Where'd she get Mondee from?

There is a family-famous bridge over a stream in Greer, AZ where we always went in the summer and where my mom now lives that we call 'the bridge of two owies.' My sister called water owie as a small child because she was trying to say agua. She apparently also liked to count owies.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:58 pm

Sometimes we say "the snow is dummy" because my brother said it once aged 4 to express extreme discomfort and ennui with being outside in winter

I learned recently that my mom's best friend Pam and her husband Bill TO THIS DAY say "Buck loafs corn on the cob" whenever they eat corn on the cob, because my brother once said it very soulfully, again probably aged 4. "I loaf [love] corn on the cob"

Also EXTREME classic saying in my family is to say "here's your coffee, horse's butt" when handing something to someone. It originated in the 80s with one of my parents' friends who said it to her husband, and it became legendary. Now Gary and I still say it to each other, so the legend lives on.

rcnederveld · Post by **rcnederveld** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:05 pm

jonathan_stick wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:05 am My uncle coined the term “gritnu” for the crunchy burned bits of food left over when cooking. It’s most likely a play on gristle. When my cousins were little they would cry out “gritnu gritnu” and my uncle would feed them directly from the pan. Now my entire extended family uses gritnu in place of any word because it is perfect.

All of mine are basically going to be Cajun/Creole sayings of which there are too many to write here, but related to this, "gradu" is like gunk, which sort of weirdly comes back to gritnu. And then my mom is from TX so got a lot of those in the mix too...

Save the dishes (put them away)
Get down (get out of the car somewhere)
Saying Cher, pronounced Sha, for anything cute
Boudé for pouting
Canaille (sneaky / bad on purpose, mostly children)
etc etc etc

Post by **joni** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:08 pm

@ritchey, is this the same husband than lovingly said "you old bitch" under his breath?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:16 pm

rcnederveld wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:05 pm
All of mine are basically going to be Cajun/Creole sayings of which there are too many to write here, but related to this, "gradu" is like gunk, which sort of weirdly comes back to gritnu. And then my mom is from TX so got a lot of those in the mix too...

Save the dishes (put them away)
Get down (get out of the car somewhere)
Saying Cher, pronounced Sha, for anything cute
Boudé for pouting
Canaille (sneaky / bad on purpose, mostly children)
etc etc etc

More!

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:28 pm

This is a truly great can of worms to open. I have too many, mostly beautiful errors from an e.s.l. French Canadian.

We call the little snowman in the Frozen movie “Dorbis”.

Anyone whose name is unknown is called “Buddy Joe”.

If you step on something pokey with bare feet, you have stepped on something “spicy”.

“Another” is pronounced “anudder”.

If you hand someone anything, you say “for your dick”.

To sit around inactively is called “grabbing your donut”.

(explicit) Peanut butter is called penis brother.

When my family was at a large social gathering (r.i.p.), instead of whistling or yelling “yoohoo” or something to locate each other, we developed a unique call that would be more recognizable. It’s hard to spell, but something like “ayooeyyoowah!”

It’s bottomless.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:33 pm

Coffee is called Joel or Bean or Hot Brown or Chief Joseph.

Berries are called “Enya”. (Coined by an infant)

The name of this planet is Erf.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:50 pm

Canned condensed milk is called “fatno” (adaptation of “fattener”, for coffee).

Quesadillas are called “quasildas” or sometimes weirdly abbreviated to Q.S.D.s.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:52 pm

Another stand in for “what’s his name” is “thing-bean” which i think is a translation of chose-bin, perhaps a Quebec thing.

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:53 pm

To vomit is to chunder.

Soy sauce is called “drip”.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:10 pm

These are amazing.
Also Phil we still call corn “cron” from the sign you saw.

Jona yes, same husband!

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:12 pm

Oh yeah cron. Steve Kado saw that one in Toronto at a veg market.

To sing along confidently to the radio when you don’t know the words and you make them up is called “ricksmacking”. I swear these are real.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:13 pm

Phil for the win!

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 2:15 pm

(from Phil's daughter) Sasha is sausage

Phil · Post by **Phil** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:38 pm

At the risk of abusing this thread, I will continue.

Ice cream is called "igon".

Wayne's World is called Wayne World.

Cheese is called "cheems".

Chunk is spelled "chonque".

When a person sneezes, instead of "god bless you" or "gezundheit" you say either "good sneeze" or "greetings!"

Cows are called "beefs".

Pigeons are called "chickens".

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:51 pm

Steve Jobs is called Stev Job

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 3:56 pm

This one is tiny but makes me happy.

My Hawaiian colleague touches bases. As in, "Willow, can I touch bases with you about a student this afternoon?" The plural is very endearing.

Also my friend's Russian husband called eyebrows "eye bruises."

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:19 pm

Oh! Our family word for wiener/penis growing up was "dangle" cause it dangled there.

Little did I know it wouldn't always dangle

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:05 pm

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:28 am

I wish I remembered them all like Phil. In my ESL house, instead of keeping track of all the changes we make I just forget what is even English anymore.

But I can say: going to the bathroom is "toileting"

Having your period is "perioding" or "bloody stuff" too gross?

toasting bread is "roasting bread" (and the toaster is the "roaster")

Also, just any time we need to stop for more than a millisecond to think of someone's name, even a family member or close friend, we just replace it with any old name that comes to mind and hope the other catches on. Like, "Hey Korneel, I just talked to Ronda and she said she and Jimmy and Rambo are coming on tour with YACHT in February! Fun, huh?"

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:08 am

This one comes from friend of the board Katy Davidson, and since adopted into our family vernacular: an iPhone is a “flat” and using your phone is called “scratching your flat” or “flat-scratching”

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:10 am

Jona and Rob call cans of sparkling water “suck ‘ems” because you just “suck ‘em down,” which has since been shortened to just “sucks”

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:11 am

m o l l y wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:28 am "Hey Korneel, I just talked to Ronda and she said she and Jimmy and Rambo are coming on tour with YACHT in February! Fun, huh?"

Am I Ronda in this scenario?

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:13 am

Oh! And the lid of a pot is called a “hat”

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:16 am

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:08 am This one comes from friend of the board Katy Davidson, and since adopted into our family vernacular: an iPhone is a “flat” and using your phone is called “scratching your flat” or “flat-scratching”

Also! Call it either a "flat thing" or a "sweepy" because of swiping?

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:17 am

yourfriendclaire wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:11 am
m o l l y wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:28 am "Hey Korneel, I just talked to Ronda and she said she and Jimmy and Rambo are coming on tour with YACHT in February! Fun, huh?"
Am I Ronda in this scenario?

Yes. You are Ronda, Jona is Jimmy and Rob is Rambo.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 10:27 am

I love our friend group family slang of PIPONBD or sometimes just PIPO (For those unfamiliar: Pop In Pop Out No Big Deal: said to indicate a degree of comforting casualness about a social invitation)

We have taught it to our new friends here and now they use it and it's very cute. "Want to do a PIPO?" I love "PIPO" as a verb.

Also as we have established, birds are zubs

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:13 am

PIPONBD / PIPO have truly stood the test of time. Chris shouts it out occasionally to make me laugh.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:23 am

It’s just so versatile, effective, AND fun to say!

Post by **joni** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 1:50 pm

But y'all never say it like "PIPE-O," right? P.I.P.O.N.B.D., right?

Pypo is what my family calls skim boarding because it was called that in Seaside, Oregon. I'm not sure if its origins, but it was so popular and known that a club opened up in the 60s called the Pypo Club (also known as the Under 21 Club), and legend has it that it's where the Kingsmen first heard and then performed their version of "Louie Louie." Paul Revere and the Raiders played there too. There's little info about it online, but here are two links for the curious:

http://pnwbands.com/pypoclub.html

https://portlandorbit.wordpress.com/201 ... ding-pypo/

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 2:54 pm

I say the letters, never pypo or peepo!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:31 pm

What!!!
I say ONLY “pee-po”

Or “pee-po NBD”

willowowow · Post by **willowowow** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 4:49 pm

ritchey wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:31 pm What!!!
I say ONLY “pee-po”

Or “pee-po NBD”

Same!

Post by **joni** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 4:50 pm

Woah! I only say the letters.

alexshred420 · Post by **alexshred420** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 4:51 pm

Beers are "tings" or "tingers" and when you get buzzed, you're "ting'd up"

Post by **joni** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 4:55 pm

We rarely drink beer, but exclusively refer to it as “ones.“

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:46 pm

Here's a good one, the Night Hawk diner in Portland is called L'Avenue.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:47 pm

I only say the full phrase "pop-in-pop-out-no-big-deal."

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:17 am

this is so interesting to learn we all experience this slang term so differently. I had no idea.