My grandmother used odd words. Of course at the time I didn't realize they were odd until I started school and I got the huh? look. I'm not speaking a foreign language here people. Oh wait, maybe I was. Thanks Honey.
( I tried to take a picture of her picture... was not happening.)
For example:
Bumbershoot = umbrella
Chifforobe = dresser drawers
Divan = couch
Ottoman = footstool
These are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.
What odd words has your family handed down to you?
Ahahaha on Day I of the A-Z after purchasing another e-book
I responded to a blog saying:
The A-Z sure has been hard on my pocketbook
Who says pocketbook? It was too late to take it back, but not too late to use it as another example of some of the odd words I use.
My parents say chifforobe too! :)
ReplyDeleteMy grandma would say pocketbook for purse. <3
I'm not alone!!
Deleteoh I have alot being from a mountain family. i remember chifferobe, ottoman, brassiere, parlor, and i used to be totally flabberghasted when my mountain grandma told me to clean some "bonny clabber" out of the baby bottle! It wasn't until I grew up and found out that gaelic for spoiled milk is "bainne clabhor"- so i asked her if she knew she was speaking gaelic and she had no clue, it was just something SHE was raised with... I just thought she would be speaking old hillbilly talk, I guess she WAS being all the Scots-Irish blood up there...
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome. I had a girlfriend whose mother was from Germany. About every third word was German.
DeleteI've used pocketbook myself. Recently. Sad, but true. :)
ReplyDeleteOkay - I'm feeling betterer and betterer.
DeleteMy grandma has a few odds words that she uses too. The most notable is Davenport. I think it means couch.
ReplyDeleteMy grandma said davenport too. It was a couch.
DeleteI didn't realize the proper word was pancake until I went to a restaurant (as an adult, mind you) and asked for a pan-a-cake. I was mortified.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, that would be.
DeleteWe've got words we've picked up from when I was little and have been adopted by other members of the family, like calling squirrels 'squiggles' because it's a hard word to say when you're three!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I are from different parts of the country and there are certain things we have different names for. Like what I call a packed lunch he calls 'packing up'. Took me a while to start using it myself.
I don't think your grandmother's words were too weird. Most of them were familiar to me. Unfortunately I didn't know any of my grandparents, so I didn't learn any odd words from them. None of my other family members taught me any odd words either Guess we are just boring people in that way.
ReplyDeleteWe use ottoman, but we use it to mean a large chest which we can store things in. Language is so interesting!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any odd words from my family, but since I'm Canadian, my American friends think some of the things I say are weird. Like a snow hat is called a tuque and deke which is faking someone out with a move like in hockey.
ReplyDeleteChifforobe is a new one to me, but the rest aren't that weird. They call green peppers mangoes in Indiana, which is pretty odd. I know my family has some of these words, but I can't think of one right now.
ReplyDeleteThe word that always comes to mind, probably because I used it in my first novel, is abattoir. It sounds a lot darker than it is (my grandfather was a butcher). Apparently most people say slaughterhouse—which always sounds so, so gruesome to me.
ReplyDeleteVR Barkowski
LOL!!! My Grandmother says "pocketbook" too!
ReplyDeleteSome of my favs:
Pop (soda)
Warsher (Washing machine)
Thingamagig (could be a person, place, thing)
Whatsamacallit (you get to guess the location)
For example "Heather, could you hand me the Thingamagig, it's over there on hte Whatsamacallit."
- Heather The Evil Twin with Love From the A to Z Challenge @thewinetwins.blogspot.com
In my family we call a double-ended oven glove a 'jolly molly' as that was the trade name of the first one my mum ever bought. My younger sibs couldn't sat 'cardigans' so those became 'gollygoes'(that caused raised eyebrows in kindergarten when my niece said she couldn't find her 'golly'!!)
ReplyDeleteIf we're sitting or standing doing nothing we are 'sitting like a pot ullet'- a Lancashire expression I think.
Here in Ireland a 'thingamajig' is more often just 'a yoke'or 'that yoke'