Probably no one will see this, but re. "discombobulate" -- right after you go through the TSA checkpoint at the Milwaukee airport, there's their little area with some tables and chairs where you can re-pack your bags after tearing everything apart, put your shoes/belts back on, etc. A sign labels it as the "recombobulation area". I am not one you would consider a TSA fan, but I have to hand it to them there -- I find that label genuinely funny.
DUDE. (non gendered dude lol). I have been to the Milwaukee airport exactly once, but that sign made me laugh so much that I still tell people about it in random conversation lol.
In the late 1960s, in an essay I wrote in a college class (University of Missouri/Mizzou) , I used the word "HUMONGOUS." I believe this word has by now fallen in to common usage, but in the 60s, the teacher marked the paper down and wrote "NO SUCH WORD" in large red letters across the page. I still have the paper as evidence of my participation in the timeline of history...the history of a word, the development of language.☺
I had no idea it was so recent. I would have guessed that it was about as old as "enormous" (1531, according to Merriam-Webster), but M-W does say that the first known use was in 1964.
That’s fascinating about “humongous”! I felt the same way about “ginormous.” When I first heard that, I assumed it was a sort of slang-and it was! From the 1940s! Who would’ve thought?
@@joelsmith5938 That one actually goes the opposite direction for me - I thought "ginormous" was much newer. I think I first heard it on The OC (which started in 2003) and thought it was supposed to be something the character Seth made up. (He used other portmanteaus like "Chrismukkah" for a combined Christmas/Hanukkah celebration.)
I have used the majority of these expressions but my favorite is humdinger. One Christmas I told my husband that I wanted a real humdinger of a frying pan. So he went shopping but after visiting several stores, he called me and said that nobody carried the Humdinger pan. I laughed so hard that I could hardly breathe, let alone offer an explanation to my bewildered husband. 😁
And please don't let him forget that. My siblings and I get together and we remind them of the silly things we did in the past. And the kids love hearing those stories and they started telling tales of utter embarrassment about each other. That makes a family a family.
Hi Cyndi. That's a belter of a story. I nearly peed meself. Thanks I need that. Was feeling a bit low. Not any more. I bet yr hubby didn't know where to put he's face. I'm seeing my daughter tomorrow if you don't mind I'm gonna tell her. O man ain't heard a good story like that for donkeys years. now that's funny. from 🇬🇧👍 an old cockney gal thanks. All the best for the future.
My mother often said “They had a conniption fit.” I always pictured someone so angry it caused them to have a physical manifestation of epilepsy. Children often interpret differently than adults 😊
I always thought it meant "pitch a fit" as in tantruming or angry outburst. My folks said conniption and the phrase " pitch a fit". I learned the other words later. I also learned not to do it.😂
I also learned it as “conniption fit.” I’ve also heard it in the plural, as in “Don’t into conniptions over this”’or “She had a case of the conniptions.”
The valedictorian gives the valediction in honor of graduating first in a class. The salutatorian gives the salutation in honor of graduating second in a class.
The speech given at the end of the school year is called a valedictory, or farewell address. Therefore “valedictorian” is “the student chosen to give the class valedictory,” which is an honor traditionally bestowed on the top student.
That word has it's origins in the Civil War era and while it now means to "get out in a hurry" or simply "scram", it originally meant "to desert while under fire."
A word I always heard my Papaw use was “nimcompoop.” He pronounced it like Nee come poop. He usually was referring to my hard headed brothers when they had done something stupid, or silly or made a mistake because they weren’t thinking.
I've always pronounced whatchamacallit as 'wuhzoomah'. I figure the 'ch' between the schwa sounds makes the tongue want to voice it, but otherwise, I'm not sure how I came to it :)
A word I do not hear often enough these days is: "rigamarole" MW says that its common spelling is rigmarole, but I have NEVER heard it pronounced that way in my life (from Northwestern Pennsylvania). While the definition states: 1) confused or meaningless talk 2) a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure I typically hear it ONLY in the context of dealing with the government. Ex: Talking in the context of Congress debating: "What is this rigamorole?!" Ex: Talking about doing overly complicated government-mandated paper work: "We are going to put you through this rigamarole." *person hands you an outrageous amount of paperwork*
I never hear it pronounced that way either. Supposedly the world started as a "Ragman Roll" which was a term apparently used in Scotland in the 14th century.
^ what Karen said. In CA it’s used to describe tediously and ritualistically jumping through hoops/taking steps to achieve something. It’s used a lot in reference to government just because of how governments operate, but is also used in other contexts.
“”The Whole rigamarole “ is how I have always heard it used. Not only does it connote complicated and lengthy steps, but you’ve got to do every one of them. No shortcuts!
Where I'm from, a Valedictorian is the student with the highest grades. Yes, they speak at graduation; but at least in my neck of the woods, the emphasis is on the achievement. The speaking engagement is a benefit. The Salutatorian is the person who got the next highest grades.
One of my favorite words, and I'm almost certain it's American just by the way it sounds, is easily "hoopla". It's just so much fun to say and conveys exactly what it means: something outright farcical
Often times used with the word crony, by my mom. "I know you crony's are in cahoots" The narrow eyes looking down at you as her head tips back, like she can see what you're thinking, a look all mom's have... 🌹 (miss her) 💕
Yeah I can’t think of any example of “in cahoots” that didn’t ultimately lead to a negative, conspiratorial connotation. But in theory you could be in cahoots and just be having a hootenanny wang doodle.
Woodrow Wilson used the spelling "okeh" in 1919, supposedly taken from a Choctaw word meaning "it is so," but by 1929 the "okay" spelling had replaced it.
@@joeymama4666 hate to break it to you but it first came about when US president #8, Martin Van Buren's supporters came up with it for his campaign. The initials O.K. came from where he was: Old Kinderhook, New York. 🙄 Look it up.
@@gemoftheocean That's one theory, as is the Choctaw origin. The actual etymology isn't know for sure. You should try looking it up before you try to "break" things to people.
I like the etymologies that say its origin was as a humorous, intentional misspelling of an acryonym for "oll korrect" (all correct) and was propagated by early telegraph operators.
You oughta see the community erupting around Trae Crowder's Weekly Skews (with Mark Agee) on Tuesdays. I may have to learn what time it drops for live chat!
My Aunt B used to talk about "Doo-Dad & Hootenanny's" whenever she couldn't immediately think of a couple's name. As in, "I almost hit a deer in front of, oh, you know... Dod-Dad & Hootenanny's down by the way."
I always thought the "highfalutin" base came from "to flaunt" one's superiority. I just love all these words and they are frequently used back here in the WVa mountains. Much of our dialect comes from the early Scots Irish, German and Dutch settlers to this area.
I just want to say that I love how you give the etymologies of words. I love knowing the history of language. Linguistics is such an interesting study.
I'm fond of using the word "boondocks", which may be shortened to "boonies". It means a place far from civilization. The word was coined in the early part of the 20th century after the USA picked up the Philippine Islands from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War. It's soldier slang that was derived from the Tagalog word "bundok", which means mountain, and was also used a lot in other engagements like Korea and Viet Nam, IIRC.
In Florida when my friends talked about something way out in the middle of nowhere they didn't say boondocks, they said something a bit ruder...they said buttfuck-egypt
There are many feral dogs on Saipan that descended from the dogs the military left there after WWII. Those feral dogs are known as "Boonie dogs." I've always thought that I I can ever have a dog, I would name him Boonie.
There was an old English humorous concert involving top name classical artists in the 70s and they had an aria called "Die Flabbergast".Used to have that LP.
It may not be worthy of the top 20 but I've always enjoyed the word "copacetic." There's something rewarding about using a four-syllable word when you could just say "cool."
Yeah! And just when and how did COOL come along as meaning some ineffable quality of self assurance, contained temperament, reasonableness and/or avant garde presence?
I remember an English teacher telling me 'highfalutin' referred to the smoke stacks on Mississippi riverboats. The stacks flared out at their ends: high flutes. The wealthy people, but especially the gamblers, were referred to by the poorer river folk as 'highfalutin'.
While the valedictorian does typically deliver the valedictory at graduation. The designation of valedictorian is the student with the highest academic achievements in the graduating class. The second highest ranking academic student is called the salutatorian. Unfortunately, I was neither.😉
Tupelo Honey Same with high school. I remember a quarrel between the top two students in my high school, which taught technical and vocational courses in parallel with academics. Both were brilliant and both had perfect GPA numbers, but one had more elective credits and won the top spot, while the other argued that HE won perfect grades in TECHNICAL courses (electronics) but SHE padded her average with HOME ECONOMICS classes (1964-65 before feminism was a thing). She got to give the speech, partly because she didn’t have such an arrogant ego and was more likable.
@@allanrichardson1468, same thing almost at my high school 15 years later. Top two students were seperated by a 10th of a percent overall average. Highest had taken easy electives, second had taken AP classes for college credit. A full college scholarship was given to the valedictorian, so lots riding on a 1/10% point. The higher GPA stood, but the next year the qualifications were changed to take into consideration difficult AP courses. Still, didn't do salutatorian of our class any good. Ahh, the good old days.
In my class the boys conspired to NOT become the valedictorian or the salutatorian because none of us wanted to make a speech. The plot involved not studying very much.
Most people aren't. Not even students on the Dean's List (GPA 3.0 or higher) or President's List (3.5 or higher, each GPA out of 4.0). I think the valedictorian has to write some sort of thesis to be considered. At least at my Alma Mater.
How about these: shindig noun shin·dig | \ ˈshin-ˌdig \ Definition of shindig 1a : a social gathering with dancing b : a usually large or lavish party hootenanny noun hoo·te·nan·ny | \ ˈhü-tə-ˌna-nē \ plural hootenannies Definition of hootenanny 1 : a gathering at which folk singers entertain often with the audience joining in
Old-fashionedness is part of being a fuddy duddy, but to me, the really integral part is the fun policing. To be a fuddy duddy, in my estimation, one must be a fun policer.
To me, a fuddy duddy is more a killjoy than a policer. He's straitlaced and reluctant to participate in the eyebrow-raising activities proposed or in progress.
I'm sure a dozen or more people have written to say that the word "Valedictorian" is not just a person who goes through the collegiate process, but he/she has come out on top, number 1 in their class. It's the BEST student.
One of my favorite words is more of a phrase: take a gander - which is a request that one look at something or someone. "Take a gander at that guy. What is he doing?" It's loosely connected to gander, as in male goose, as when a goose looks at something, it will stretch its neck in different directions to look around. It's believed to have been coined by thieves in the Western United States during the mid-nineteenth century, as a way to speak some sort of undecipherable code around law enforcement officers and the general populace. One thief would point to a bank or a shop and say to those with whom he was in cahoots "[t]ake a gander at that", meaning that it would be a good target for the next robbery. I am glad I came across your channel. It's very entertaining. Like Erin Gee below, I'm a new subscriber from Utah.
It's so funny to me to hear Cattycorner because I grew up calling it kittycorner in New England. It was actually nice to hear someone in a different section of the US (Minnesota) call it kittycorner within the last few weeks. It was on The Minimal Mom's UA-cam channel and the "Mom" said it describing a diagonal section of their camper.
I just fell asleep listening to your chatter. Woke back up and realized I’ve been listening to your videos for an hour while I was sleeping. Thank you for helping me with my insomnia (but you’re really not boring, so don’t worry about it.)
Tarnation - an expression of exasperation "what in tarnation are you doing?" Can be used solo, at the front or end of a sentence or tied together with "What in the" Like the phrase "what in the world" I have only ever heard "doohickey" with the tailed of the word additionally ended with "na-na" Sounding like the aw sound of the o in box of fox. Also. I have only ever heard "conniption" with fit added to the end of it. " woah. Karen is having another conniption fit down at the corner store. 😳 "
I was bamboozled when I found out the origin of the word " girl". One day I was wondering about the ugliness of its sound. Old English used maiden, Dutch meid or meisje, German maedchen. My gigantic, million- words, dictionary said it comes from Old English " gharyl", a youth of any sex. Hope this was not too much gobbledygook.
Ah, someone after my own heart! I love words and their origins, too. I was going to suggest "skedaddle" and found someone already had. As I commented in the discussion on that post, it now means to "leave in a hurry" or simply "scram", but when originally coined during the American Civil War, it meant "to desert while under fire."
I've always assumed "panhandling" refers to the beggar's plate or "pan", which historically would be a metal bowl or plate. Thus begging using a plate could be described as "handling a pan" or "panhandling". There's a lot of evidence of metal bowls being used for begging, and they would have been very effectual before the introduction of paper currency. There's also the symbolic meaning to donating money into a plate the beggar would later eat from.
I love words that give you a strong hint of what they mean just by the sounds they make. If you never heard 'discombobulated' before, you could probably guess it doesn't mean happy or orange or numerous.
I surprisingly knew pulchritudinous. In freshman year graphic design we had to make a clothes brand label and i decided to use the Latin word for beauty which was pulchritudo. Nobody cares but I just had to say it lol
@@LostinthePond --- to your great words list I recently lived in the UK 9 years from 2010 to 2019 -- one word I did have to explain to the British was "boondocks" ditto "boonies." (Same meaning.) For the last five years I lived I lived in Brentford, just south of Ealing. I had heard some of the local high school boys use the word "dude" in the same sense people use/d it in California, some 50 years ago when I first came to California. Dude has dozens of meaning depending on how you say it, the context it's said in, the inflection in the voice, how long you draw the word out, if you accompany it with an eye roll, a lift of the eyes straight up, sideways skyward, etc. Extremely flexible. And I could tell that summer of 1970 the word was already well established in verbal usage with all those different meanings depending on context.
SNAFU, though perhaps surprisingly is British in origin. It was picked up by American soldiers from the British. This was much discussed at the time the term first came into popular use (World War 2).
Doohickey was always a favorite of mine. Having grown up in the American south (Atlanta, GA), I mostly think of phrases more than words...like "down yonder" (down the way a bit) and "fixin' to" (getting ready to).
Fuddy-duddy has much more to do with demeanor than with appearance. As an Okie, native to the state that actually looks like a pan with a handle, it ticks me off when panhandle gets used for places that look nothing like one. I'm looking at you, Texas.
Texas looks like a pan if you're standing over-top of it, and OK looks like one from the side...FL looks nothing like either - unless the pan has melted and slid down the cabinet face...I also find it interesting that FL is only panhandle & peninsula...
@@NunYaO "Texas looks like a pan if you're standing over-top of it" How? I don't see it at all. If anything it's diamond-shaped, but even that is a stretch.
@@LostinthePond That reminded me of the old song about "eyes" ~ Jeepers, Creepers, where did you get those Peepers?" ua-cam.com/video/d0lgswGOgrs/v-deo.html
@@LostinthePond DeBeck was a great coiner of phrases. Another cartoonist who you may find interesting to look into and was also a great coiner of word and phrases, was Tad Dorgan, who added a couple of dozens slang phrases to the permanent American lexicon. The most famous being "hot dog" to describe a frankfurter, the implication being that the mat a frankfurter was made from was neither beef nor pork.
My mother still says several of these word in daily conversation. She also uses several other "strange words" all the time. We're laugh at her all the time, we always thought she had just made these words up as we had only heard them from her. 🤣 Thank you for this video. I am going to share with all my family members. 🙂
@Jeannise Schwerin Was one of those words your mother used "copporosity (spelling?)" Mama used that a lot as in "That doesn't suit my copporosity." I haven't seen it mentioned yet and I am way down the list of remarks to this post. I don't know if she made it up. We are from North Carolina.
My sister used to make up swear words, my favorite was "FART KNOCKERS". She had a scatological predilection. I used "DICK WAD" a lot, as it seemed to embody the messed up quality of masculine penis obsession with a dismissive contempt.
@@kristinedoty7876 As someone who works with elementary students, I need to find expressions that show frustration and disappointment without being vulgar. Poodles! Tartar sauce! Dagnabbit!
Traditionally, the salutitorian makes the speech of welcomie at the beginning of the graduation ceremony while the valedictorian makes the speech that is both a farewel and an encouragement toward future endeavors. The salutitorian is the second ranking student while the valedictorian is the first ranking student,
@@amandag417 I thought dog-legged was like if something is L-shaped to another thing? I mean, I guess it would be diagonal, too if you look at the points, but... I always thought dog-legged meant like, you had to go around a corner to get to it. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know... haha
@@Nimeariel , where I'm at I think it means L-shaped too. There's a Dog Leg Creek here, named that because of the L-shape it tracks. But language can be so local, I wouldn't dare say Amandag417 is wrong. :)
A term somewhat similar to clodhopper is bogtrotter, only a clodhopper is a rube or hayseed and a bogtrotter was a very insulting term for a person of Irish ancestry.
"Ornery" is such a great word. In my family we use it in the sense of "in a cantankerous and stubborn mood." So first thing in the morning, someone may announce, "I feel as ornery as a toad stuck in a pitch pond." (AKA a tar pit, as in La Brea.)
My dad, when speaking to one of his grandchildren, would often refer to them as, “schnicklefritz.” Often because he couldn’t always remember their names!
@Donna Rinker I am a North Carolinian who picked up that usage from my husband's Central Pennsylvanians. I usually make it sound like snickelfritz and it comes in very handy in my old age.
German origion, probably through Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsche). Schnickle is snap, schnick is snappy. Fritz is just a common name. So it translate to something like Johnny Jump-up, a quick-growing weed (flower).
My grandmother, who was the child of German immigrants on both sides, used to call us “schnicklefritzes” or “schpitzpoops” when we were being naughty. Although German was the first language of both her parents, they did not teach their 13 children to speak fluent German because they wanted them to be “American”.
Snicklefritz was a term of endearment from my Dad, especially when referring to any small child, but mostly for my younger brother and me. Thanks for the memories.
I lived in both the Texas Panhandle, and the Nebraska one. Now, I live in Florida, but not in the Panhandle. I have used (or at least heard) of all of these. They are wonderful words. Thank you for giving them the spotlight!
I’ve lived in several states with panhandles (Florida, Texas, Oklahoma) as well as Washington with Panhandle Gap (on the Wonderland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park). But never in said panhandles themselves!
My mother was born in NYC in 1919. She told me that when she was a kid, temporary tattoos -- the ones on a clear sheet to which you add water to make them stick on your arm -- were called "cockamamies".
I absolutely LOVE this episode. My grandchildren get a kick from my old fashioned words. And I also love the comments from this episode. Lost in the Pond, you could write a book...with line drawing cartoons it would be hilarious.
I always reckoned that boondoggle had origin in a 'doggle', a kind of distracting tidbit like a shiny coin or a marble that you gave a kid to be quiet (back when there were less worries about them swallowing same) and 'boon', something that accomplished a good purpose. I just assumed that it had mutated to mean a useless or low value endeavor that had more hype value than real value but preoccupied the recipient. In other words, a doggle for doing a boon. As a kid in Carolina we used boon, (a boon to the local economy) and doggle (give that youngin a doggle (or daggle) to hash em up)
I think the most prevalent definition of boondoggle today is the unnecessary business trip or extravagant location, like the annual sales meeting in Hawaii. Or that business trip to Atlanta this year that just happens to be Super Bowl week.
In my family in Kentucky, the slang "Dunlap" replaced the slang term for a bulging midriff (or beer gut), a "spare tire." Dunlap is a brand of racing car tire. And if you're midriff can conceal your belt, you say your Dunlap "has done lapped," which plays on both the over - lapped part of the body as well as what a real Dunlap does: conveys the car around the racetrack one time.
I could also see where "dunlap" might have evolved from "dewlap", the wattle around the neck of animals, like bunnies and cows. Just move it down a bit to the tummy, for the attractive "spare tire" look.
A word I use a lot is 'guesstimate". But growing up many discussions with family included boondocks, malarkey, conniption fit, doohickey, and ornery. The only ones not in our vocabulary were Snollygoster and Whangdoodle.
The reported etymology of okay is really neat as well, it came out of Boston and has become international in it's usage. Many of the words that you find fascinating from American English have come from the jazz age or the African-American community in the early 1900's. This slang-turned-language was one of the ways they distinguished themselves as a culture after slavery, now that they had opportunity to think internally. My favorite word from this era is saditty (there are variations in spelling), meaning a snobbish, arrogant, or superior person or someone of an upper class.
You really have the best of this style of channel. I always enjoy watching. Your videos are entertaining, enlightening, and you have a great talent for pointing out differences without being condescending or annoying. You're going to be a huge success so I hope you keep it up.
Yes, the meaning is generally more than just “old-fashioned,” as was said in this video. It’s old-fashioned in a stubborn, awkward way that often impacts on the general mood. It’s a cross between “old-fashioned” and the British term “po-faced.”
Fluting is what one did to your 'kerchief before placing it in your top breast pocket of your suit, showing your 'flair'. I suspect its placement in the pocket ranges from low, little showing, to high, much showing and being more pompous than others.
@@jol1958 From the song "Ragtime Cowboy Joe." "He's a higfalutin', rootin' tootin' son-of-a-gun from Arizona, Ragtime Cowboy Joe" ua-cam.com/video/2okR3fkNIxA/v-deo.html
Of course, not to be confused with something that is cattywampus is the wampus cat, a popular school mascot cat creature, usually depicted with six legs. A Wampus Cat is also now part of Harry Potter canon, so it has crossed over at least recently back to Britain.
I think there was a magazine in the 20's with "Wampus" in its tittlePossibly Wampuscat.I believe Wampus was very popular in the teens and twenties. The magazine was on the edge of humor.
I'm surprised "rambunctious" isn't on this list, you've gone on about it before. Also, I'm from Southern California, and "cowabunga" is (or was) indeed surfer slang.
Here in Texas, I've usually heard catawampus as "cattywampus" (it was one of my father's absolute favorite words); and relatedly, catacorner as "catty-corner" although I know other regions of the US often use "kitty-corner". It's not hard to see how the US can originate so many interesting words. From the beginning, we've been a nation of mixed heritage and languages living in close proximity to each other. English itself being a west-Germanic language with ~50% of the modern vocabulary supplemented by French borrowings (Anglo-Norman), our ability to mongrelize the tongue is seemingly endless. Place a bunch of English speakers alongside Dutch and German speakers, mix in some Spanish and French speakers, and have them all try to converse. People will invariably absorb words from each other and mis-pronounce them, blend them, etc. This is how language evolves--and the 18th & 19th century melting pot in particular intensified that. I love our unique words and am happy to see them appreciated by folks who didn't grow up here. Some of my other favorite American-born words are: whatchamacallit, whatsit, thingamabob / thingy, doodad (all similar to doohickey), diddly-squat, copacetic, filibuster, gerrymander, hornswaggle, moxie, OK, rambunctious, skedaddle, and one popularized by Edgar Allen Poe: tintinnabulation.
One common Americanism that doesn't make these lists it "the back forty." Perhaps many American urbanites don't know it either. Much of America was platted in sections one mile square, or 640 acres. It was further subdivided into 16 40 acre portions. Every farm had one of these 40 acres portions that was in the back, so the back forty is a place removed or separated from everything.
I've heard "back forty" but more often I've heard it said as "lower forty". In "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry sings "There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow". She was from the Mississippi Delta, so maybe there are regional variations?
Did you overlook "doozy"? It means excessive, over the top. It comes from the Duesenberg V-12 car, manufactured during the Great Depression. They cost at least as much as a house. Each car had a plaque on the dashboard attesting that "this car has been driven over one hundred miles per hour". In those days, that was just a stupendous achievement.
Just discovered your channel & am enjoying your observations on these "two great nations separated by a common language". In the Southern Appalachians, "cattywampus" is interchangeable with "Wampus Cat," a legendary beast, perhaps of Cherokee origin, something like a mountain lion that walks on its hinds legs like a human. It doesn't seem to have ill intent, but when men are camping in the mountains (perhaps on a hunting weekend) & drinking around a campfire, the Wampus Cat will sometimes leap into the campsite & dance around the fire for a few moments before stealing away into the shadows, leaving the stunned campers questioning their sanity. As a native of East Tennessee, I have known "people who knew people" who claimed to have encountered the Cattywampus in such circumstances. In these parts, "cattycornered" is used to indicate a diagonal orientation. Best wishes.
Hoosegow is from the Spanish juzgado (the J is pronounced like H is in English) meaning a court in session. Because the courthouse and the jail were often combined, this lead to the meaning of hoosegow as jail.
Doozy is a shortened form of "Duesenberg", a luxury car brand that was popular in the first half of the 20th century. Doozy is used as a superlative, meaning that whatever you are describing is first rate or exceptional.
My old farmer dad, who was born in Michigan in 1908, used to say we don't want to end up in the hoosegow. I thought it sounded like something from the old west. But he didn't call a bar a saloon. He called it a beer garden. I wonder where that came from.
If poppycock and cockamamie indeed both come from “New Amsterdam,” the “cock” portion is from the Dutch word for excrement. One source I read long ago said “poppycock” originally mean “soft manure,” so maybe “cockamamie” had something to do with manure also. Sorry if this interferes with your enjoyment of the trademarked popcorn mix with that name!
Recombobulation Area☺ This was on a sign in the Milwaukee Airport about 10 years ago. Was the area where everyone was to put shoes back on, etc., after the security inspection.
I've always experienced Valedictorian as the top student (best GPA) in the senior class, and in larger schools there may be up to 4 Valedictorians. It's the Salutorian who gives the student address at the graduation ceremony. Sometimes it was the 2nd best student (as a form on acknowledgenent, or sometimes the administration will accept applications from students who were interested, then the administration would select the "Salutorian." Some (especially smaller) schools separate them partially to make the ceremony slightly longer (like when your graduating class is under 40, maybe only even in the teens, if that). The Valedictorian would recieve an award and give a short, 5 minute speech, but the Salutorian gave the main address. I grew up in a very rural area (3 public high schools, plus 1 Catholic school in the entire county). My school was largest because we were the largest city in the county (population 2,500ish), but we also got most of the kids from the "small" towns in the county, a couple of which had an elementary school at least. Most of our classes were in the upper 20's- 30's, my class was gonna be the first one over 40 students, until I moved away my sophomore year, and then a group of boys were arrested for multiple bank robberies (and 1 for attempted murder) their senior year. The other 2 high schools in the county had graduating classes of 3-4 and 8-10 students. When the class is that small, they want to do things to lengthen this ceremony, and make it more special/memorable. All 3 schools did slide shows with 4-6 pics of each student (depending on class size). Baby picture, a few random pics submitted by parents (usually 1 funny pic), then their senior portrait. Even with all that, plus a speech by the principal and superintendent, you'd be lucky if the entire ceremony lasted an hour. At our "big" school we could usually get to 90 minutes. I remember when the school finally had a large enough elementary school grade that they had to split it into 2 classes (and totally expand the school to make room for the larger classes behind them). The Jr High was in the High school building (across the street from the elementary school, and had some overlapping teachers. The only cafeteria was in the elementary building, so we had to run across the street for lunch, starting in 7th grade, and the elementary building had no gymnasium, so we either used the playground, or walked over to the high school, which had 2 Gyms (they'd done an addition about 10 years before to add a new gym -- with a wood floor even! and a stage on one end for the school plays and concerts, and backstage entrances to the new choir and band rooms. It also housed the art room, and wood shop -- mandatory 1/2 semester of each, and 1 semester of home-economics (half sewing, half cooking) -- for boys and girls during 7th and 8th grade. During high school you could take 2 electives: home-ec, shop, art, band, or choir. (Or 1 elective and a study hall, but never 2 study halls). Unfortunately after freshman year you were kind of locked on, because if you tried to change later, you'd be behind. Shop class (in high school) was definitely more for the kids who were definitely not college-bound. (farmers or tradespeople). They split their time between woodworking, and small-engine repair (usually lawnmowers). I'm sure most of that has been phased out (or at least scaled back now, especially because those rooms took up lots of space, and schools became much more college-oriented for a while, even though (especially in the very rural areas) university was very unlikely for at least half the students. Now, in big cities, they've become more realistic, and students can spend half the day on traditional academics, and half the day on vocational training (IT, catering, massage therapy, cosmetology, mechanics, public safety (law enforcement or firefighters) carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and other trades, etc. It is much more logical and practical than forcing everyone into the 1-track academic path. My little sister had a friend who graduated high school ready to take her cosmetology exam the next week, and become a hairdresser, which is what she knew she wanted to do. This way the state essentially paid for her cosmetology school, and she graduated high school ready to enter the workforce. If she'd been forced to stay with just academics, she would have failed grades, or (more likely) just dropped out. This way the school graduation stats higher, and students are more prepared for their real futures (and enter their professions with less (or no) debt. It also helps the college-bound students by eliminating the less academically-inclined students from the classes so it's more focused, and just the kids who actually want to be there. Even tho we moved to a larger town while I was in high school, there wasn't much vocational training back then, so those students became frustrated and disruptive in the higher level academic classes. (Can't say that I blame them much. It was really beyond them, and wasn't preparing them for life after school either, but they didn't want the stigma of being a dropout.)
I remember watching the Disney version of The Little Mermaid as a child in the early 90s. I believe Ariel referred to either her father, King Trident, or Sebastian as a "fuddy duddy" for not letting her do what she wanted to do and raining on her parade. I remember liking the sound of the word. And cowabunga brings me back to my childhood love of the party animal Michelangelo. Fun video!
10:06 You're quite correct about that one, Laurence A lot of people, Myself included, actually did think that "Poppycock" was a British word that carried over to the American lexicon
mojo, tintinnabulation, skedaddle, bummer (fairly certain that one means something different in the UK), moxie, filibuster, maverick, bloviate, bonkers
My favorite presidential nickname is "Tintinnabulating Teddy", meaning Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and referring to his loud and constantly running mouth. It's a funny nickname for a guy who said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
I may be biased, as I am one of this word, but one of my favorite words is Cackalacky. It refers to either the state of North Carolina or someone from North Carolina.
schnookered is a good one too. 😀. I enjoyed your list. From time to time, I’ve used some of these words and others I had forgotten about. But I’m going to use them sometime soon. 😂
Probably no one will see this, but re. "discombobulate" -- right after you go through the TSA checkpoint at the Milwaukee airport, there's their little area with some tables and chairs where you can re-pack your bags after tearing everything apart, put your shoes/belts back on, etc. A sign labels it as the "recombobulation area".
I am not one you would consider a TSA fan, but I have to hand it to them there -- I find that label genuinely funny.
DUDE. (non gendered dude lol). I have been to the Milwaukee airport exactly once, but that sign made me laugh so much that I still tell people about it in random conversation lol.
Also, if you want more funny TSA, check out their Instagram. Whoever runs it is a comic genius.
That is the funniest shit I've read all day. Thanks for the laugh 🤣🤣🤣
I have recombobulated there several times.
EvanED yes it is funny. Not a fan of there’s either
In the late 1960s, in an essay I wrote in a college class (University of Missouri/Mizzou) , I used the word "HUMONGOUS." I believe this word has by now fallen in to common usage, but in the 60s, the teacher marked the paper down and wrote "NO SUCH WORD" in large red letters across the page. I still have the paper as evidence of my participation in the timeline of history...the history of a word, the development of language.☺
great achievement my friend!
Bravo!!
I had no idea it was so recent. I would have guessed that it was about as old as "enormous" (1531, according to Merriam-Webster), but M-W does say that the first known use was in 1964.
That’s fascinating about “humongous”! I felt the same way about “ginormous.” When I first heard that, I assumed it was a sort of slang-and it was! From the 1940s! Who would’ve thought?
@@joelsmith5938 That one actually goes the opposite direction for me - I thought "ginormous" was much newer. I think I first heard it on The OC (which started in 2003) and thought it was supposed to be something the character Seth made up. (He used other portmanteaus like "Chrismukkah" for a combined Christmas/Hanukkah celebration.)
I have used the majority of these expressions but my favorite is humdinger. One Christmas I told my husband that I wanted a real humdinger of a frying pan. So he went shopping but after visiting several stores, he called me and said that nobody carried the Humdinger pan. I laughed so hard that I could hardly breathe, let alone offer an explanation to my bewildered husband. 😁
So funny !
And please don't let him forget that. My siblings and I get together and we remind them of the silly things we did in the past. And the kids love hearing those stories and they started telling tales of utter embarrassment about each other. That makes a family a family.
WOW 😲😳 I can't stop laughing, I've got tears and a side stitch going! I can just see him running around looking for them.
Hi Cyndi. That's a belter of a story. I nearly peed meself. Thanks I need that. Was feeling a bit low. Not any more. I bet yr hubby didn't know where to put he's face. I'm seeing my daughter tomorrow if you don't mind I'm gonna tell her. O man ain't heard a good story like that for donkeys years. now that's funny. from 🇬🇧👍 an old cockney gal thanks. All the best for the future.
Maybe next time you should ask him to bring you some Freudian slips
My mother often said “They had a conniption fit.” I always pictured someone so angry it caused them to have a physical manifestation of epilepsy. Children often interpret differently than adults 😊
I always thought it meant "pitch a fit" as in tantruming or angry outburst. My folks said conniption and the phrase " pitch a fit". I learned the other words later. I also learned not to do it.😂
I also learned it as “conniption fit.”
I’ve also heard it in the plural, as in “Don’t into conniptions over this”’or “She had a case of the conniptions.”
Being a Southerner, I'm more familiar with hissy fit.
Valedictorian doesn't just randomly give the speech. He is the top student, which is the actual use of the word.
The valedictorian gives the valediction in honor of graduating first in a class. The salutatorian gives the salutation in honor of graduating second in a class.
The speech given at the end of the school year is called a valedictory, or farewell address. Therefore “valedictorian” is “the student chosen to give the class valedictory,” which is an honor traditionally bestowed on the top student.
Alice Cooper is the ultimate valedictorian because he has the most famous announcement of school being out for summer and/or ever.
Or SHE. These days 70% of valedictorians are female.
In my son’s school the valedictorian is elected by their fellow classmates
Good list. I would add "skedaddle" to it, myself.
Oh yes, I love that word.
Skedaddle means to scram or get lost, yes?
That word has it's origins in the Civil War era and while it now means to "get out in a hurry" or simply "scram", it originally meant "to desert while under fire."
There's a whole song about getting lost skraming or skidadling by Michael Jackson and he never uses those words
@@ewaleokadia76
High Tail It outta here
A word I always heard my Papaw use was “nimcompoop.” He pronounced it like Nee come poop. He usually was referring to my hard headed brothers when they had done something stupid, or silly or made a mistake because they weren’t thinking.
I think that word is usually spelled "nincompoop."
@@heatherkuhn6559me too.
What is papaw? Is it like “Papa?
doohickey = whatchamacallit, thingamabob, thingamajig
Indeed.
And another to add to that list - doodad. This was a thoroughly entertaining discussion.@@LostinthePond
I've always pronounced whatchamacallit as 'wuhzoomah'. I figure the 'ch' between the schwa sounds makes the tongue want to voice it, but otherwise, I'm not sure how I came to it :)
Ken Davis I forgot doodad!
Don't forget "whosawhatsit"
A word I do not hear often enough these days is: "rigamarole"
MW says that its common spelling is rigmarole, but I have NEVER heard it pronounced that way in my life (from Northwestern Pennsylvania).
While the definition states: 1) confused or meaningless talk 2) a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure
I typically hear it ONLY in the context of dealing with the government.
Ex: Talking in the context of Congress debating: "What is this rigamorole?!"
Ex: Talking about doing overly complicated government-mandated paper work: "We are going to put you through this rigamarole." *person hands you an outrageous amount of paperwork*
I never hear it pronounced that way either. Supposedly the world started as a "Ragman Roll" which was a term apparently used in Scotland in the 14th century.
Not so much "paper work" -- but ritualistically having to jump through a lot of hoops to get something simple done.
^ what Karen said. In CA it’s used to describe tediously and ritualistically jumping through hoops/taking steps to achieve something. It’s used a lot in reference to government just because of how governments operate, but is also used in other contexts.
“”The Whole rigamarole “ is how I have always heard it used. Not only does it connote complicated and lengthy steps, but you’ve got to do every one of them. No shortcuts!
We pronounce it with the "a" in Texas as well. As in, "My mom and her cat have an evening ritual that has reached rigamarole status!"
Where I'm from, a Valedictorian is the student with the highest grades. Yes, they speak at graduation; but at least in my neck of the woods, the emphasis is on the achievement. The speaking engagement is a benefit. The Salutatorian is the person who got the next highest grades.
One of my favorite words, and I'm almost certain it's American just by the way it sounds, is easily "hoopla". It's just so much fun to say and conveys exactly what it means: something outright farcical
I've always thought of "cahoots" as suggesting some nefarious conspiracy.
Yes, that's how I have always interpreted it.
It does. Absolutely. That's the point.
Often times used with the word crony, by my mom. "I know you crony's are in cahoots" The narrow eyes looking down at you as her head tips back, like she can see what you're thinking, a look all mom's have... 🌹 (miss her) 💕
Yeah I can’t think of any example of “in cahoots” that didn’t ultimately lead to a negative, conspiratorial connotation. But in theory you could be in cahoots and just be having a hootenanny wang doodle.
"cahootistician" == conspiracy theorist?
Imo "okay" is greatest American-coined word ever, even though its meaning changes with inflection - that's part of its charm. It has swept the world.
Perhaps the only word understood by every human, okay
Woodrow Wilson used the spelling "okeh" in 1919, supposedly taken from a Choctaw word meaning "it is so," but by 1929 the "okay" spelling had replaced it.
@@joeymama4666 hate to break it to you but it first came about when US president #8, Martin Van Buren's supporters came up with it for his campaign. The initials O.K. came from where he was: Old Kinderhook, New York. 🙄 Look it up.
@@gemoftheocean That's one theory, as is the Choctaw origin. The actual etymology isn't know for sure. You should try looking it up before you try to "break" things to people.
I like the etymologies that say its origin was as a humorous, intentional misspelling of an acryonym for "oll korrect" (all correct) and was propagated by early telegraph operators.
'Chortle'- a combo of a chuckle and a snort. Always loved that one!
Of course "chortle" comes from Britain...first coined by Lewis Carroll.
I love a UA-cam post where the comments are as insightful and interesting as those of the original presenter. Good for you, Mr. Brown.
You oughta see the community erupting around Trae Crowder's Weekly Skews (with Mark Agee) on Tuesdays.
I may have to learn what time it drops for live chat!
I’m a fan of hootenanny. Also has the double “o’s” you talk about
My Aunt B used to talk about "Doo-Dad & Hootenanny's" whenever she couldn't immediately think of a couple's name. As in, "I almost hit a deer in front of, oh, you know... Dod-Dad & Hootenanny's down by the way."
Genetic experiments from "Farm of the Future" animated cartoon. Crossing an owl with a goat gives a "hootnanny"
Sure is a ding-dang of a hoedown.
I think that's a Scottish word for a party or celebration.
Doozy = Something extraordinary or bizarre
"My Aunt Clara -- she's a real doozy."
"Wasn't that a doozy of a storm yesterday?"
Derived from either Italian actress Eleonora Duse or the Duesenberg (Duesy) auto
Diddelysquat. As in, "You don't know diddelysquat." :-D
Or the shortened "you know squat about ..."
We leave out the 'e' in Texas - diddlysquat.
Anything like the the defunct Bristol-Siddeley?
I’m uk I just use the word squat for knowing nothing.
@@EmilyCheetham Didleysquat is the same meaning and usage.
I always thought the "highfalutin" base came from "to flaunt" one's superiority. I just love all these words and they are frequently used back here in the WVa mountains. Much of our dialect comes from the early Scots Irish, German and Dutch settlers to this area.
I just want to say that I love how you give the etymologies of words. I love knowing the history of language. Linguistics is such an interesting study.
Hi kissy. If you can say that yr clever. Can't say it get tongue tide to easily. from 🇬🇧👍 an old cockney gal
I'm fond of using the word "boondocks", which may be shortened to "boonies". It means a place far from civilization. The word was coined in the early part of the 20th century after the USA picked up the Philippine Islands from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War. It's soldier slang that was derived from the Tagalog word "bundok", which means mountain, and was also used a lot in other engagements like Korea and Viet Nam, IIRC.
In Florida when my friends talked about something way out in the middle of nowhere they didn't say boondocks, they said something a bit ruder...they said buttfuck-egypt
Like the song, "Down in the Boondocks."
There are many feral dogs on Saipan that descended from the dogs the military left there after WWII. Those feral dogs are known as "Boonie dogs." I've always thought that I I can ever have a dog, I would name him Boonie.
@@susanfarley1332Interesting. I have only heard it as bum f*ck Egypt
@@anndeecosita3586 well, I thought I would get in trouble with UA-cam if I put it that way.
Dude, what about flabbergasted? Don’t know the origin but it is such a cool word!
Seems to have originated in England in the 18th century.
@@LostinthePond I should have read down in the comments before bringing it up myself. Wonder what the etymology of that one was ...
My husband created a word that combines the notions of "flummoxed," "flustered," and "flabbergasted." It's "flusterficasticated."
There was an old English humorous concert involving top name classical artists in the 70s and they had an aria called "Die Flabbergast".Used to have that LP.
@@LostinthePond I use it when all other synonyms fail to express my thoughts xD
Most of these words were used in the 1960's sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. Granny was a hoot and a half!
Yes, the Beverly Hillbillies is a treasure trove of rural and Ozark area expressions.
It may not be worthy of the top 20 but I've always enjoyed the word "copacetic." There's something rewarding about using a four-syllable word when you could just say "cool."
Think that was Italian.
Yeah! And just when and how did COOL come along as meaning some ineffable quality of self assurance, contained temperament, reasonableness and/or avant garde presence?
I remember an English teacher telling me 'highfalutin' referred to the smoke stacks on Mississippi riverboats. The stacks flared out at their ends: high flutes. The wealthy people, but especially the gamblers, were referred to by the poorer river folk as 'highfalutin'.
Love it! Great origin.
While the valedictorian does typically deliver the valedictory at graduation. The designation of valedictorian is the student with the highest academic achievements in the graduating class. The second highest ranking academic student is called the salutatorian. Unfortunately, I was neither.😉
Tupelo Honey Same with high school. I remember a quarrel between the top two students in my high school, which taught technical and vocational courses in parallel with academics. Both were brilliant and both had perfect GPA numbers, but one had more elective credits and won the top spot, while the other argued that HE won perfect grades in TECHNICAL courses (electronics) but SHE padded her average with HOME ECONOMICS classes (1964-65 before feminism was a thing). She got to give the speech, partly because she didn’t have such an arrogant ego and was more likable.
@@allanrichardson1468, same thing almost at my high school 15 years later. Top two students were seperated by a 10th of a percent overall average. Highest had taken easy electives, second had taken AP classes for college credit. A full college scholarship was given to the valedictorian, so lots riding on a 1/10% point. The higher GPA stood, but the next year the qualifications were changed to take into consideration difficult AP courses. Still, didn't do salutatorian of our class any good. Ahh, the good old days.
+
In my class the boys conspired to NOT become the valedictorian or the salutatorian because none of us wanted to make a speech. The plot involved not studying very much.
Most people aren't. Not even students on the Dean's List (GPA 3.0 or higher) or President's List (3.5 or higher, each GPA out of 4.0).
I think the valedictorian has to write some sort of thesis to be considered. At least at my Alma Mater.
How about these:
shindig noun
shin·dig | \ ˈshin-ˌdig \
Definition of shindig
1a : a social gathering with dancing
b : a usually large or lavish party
hootenanny noun
hoo·te·nan·ny | \ ˈhü-tə-ˌna-nē \
plural hootenannies
Definition of hootenanny
1 : a gathering at which folk singers entertain often with the audience joining in
Back in the 1960s there were tv shows by that name! They were "mod" versions of the Dick Clark's American Bandstand.
David Myers Donnybrook
I smell a Buffy fan...
@@akeeperofoddknowledge4956 Hullabaloo and Shivaree not to be confused with Charivari.
@@akeeperofoddknowledge4956 I was going to mention that, myself.
Surprised humungous is not in the list. It always throws our guests from Australia.
It's a good one.
Wasn't "baddest toe cutter" in "Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior" called "Humongus"?
Old-fashionedness is part of being a fuddy duddy, but to me, the really integral part is the fun policing. To be a fuddy duddy, in my estimation, one must be a fun policer.
To me, a fuddy duddy is more a killjoy than a policer. He's straitlaced and reluctant to participate in the eyebrow-raising activities proposed or in progress.
A fun policer is a "thief of joy". Lol
I'm sure a dozen or more people have written to say that the word "Valedictorian" is not just a person who goes through the collegiate process, but he/she has come out on top, number 1 in their class. It's the BEST student.
One of my favorite words is more of a phrase: take a gander - which is a request that one look at something or someone. "Take a gander at that guy. What is he doing?"
It's loosely connected to gander, as in male goose, as when a goose looks at something, it will stretch its neck in different directions to look around. It's believed to have been coined by thieves in the Western United States during the mid-nineteenth century, as a way to speak some sort of undecipherable code around law enforcement officers and the general populace. One thief would point to a bank or a shop and say to those with whom he was in cahoots "[t]ake a gander at that", meaning that it would be a good target for the next robbery.
I am glad I came across your channel. It's very entertaining. Like Erin Gee below, I'm a new subscriber from Utah.
Also, if You dillydally, we'll never get anything finished.
I like to use the word lollygagging lol it's more fun to say
@@rachelshin5469 Also if you're piddling around (in the south anyway).
Standin' around lollygaggin when you should be workin'?
I use this regularly. Especially when trying to walk anywhere with children.
That strikes me as Canadian for some reason. :)
No lollygagging.
Dillydally
I love the word lollygaggin . I use it often when i'm talking to my 7 year old niece.
It's so funny to me to hear Cattycorner because I grew up calling it kittycorner in New England. It was actually nice to hear someone in a different section of the US (Minnesota) call it kittycorner within the last few weeks. It was on The Minimal Mom's UA-cam channel and the "Mom" said it describing a diagonal section of their camper.
I remember the first time I heard someone use that term. I thought I was being pranked. :D
And let's not forget skeewampus, which is another one that I still hear sometimes in Utah...
It's kittycorner in CA too.
Pacific Northwest also
I've come to know it as "kiddie corner" lol
I just fell asleep listening to your chatter. Woke back up and realized I’ve been listening to your videos for an hour while I was sleeping. Thank you for helping me with my insomnia (but you’re really not boring, so don’t worry about it.)
1:17 Panhandle
2:14 Fuddy-Duddy
2:46 Humdinger
3:22 Doohickey
4:18 Cockamamie
4:55 Cowabunga
5:47 Malarkey
6:32 Ornery
7:11 Valedictorian
8:01 Lollapalooza
9:20 Pulchritudinous
9:54 Poppycock
11:01 Cattywampus
12:03 Snollygoster
12:54 Highfalutin
13:55 Conniption
14:48 Discombobulate
15:34 Boondoggle
16:31 Cahoots
17:53 Whangdoodle
Tarnation - an expression of exasperation
"what in tarnation are you doing?"
Can be used solo, at the front or end of a sentence or tied together with "What in the"
Like the phrase "what in the world"
I have only ever heard "doohickey"
with the tailed of the word additionally ended with "na-na"
Sounding like the aw sound of the o in box of fox.
Also. I have only ever heard "conniption" with fit added to the end of it.
" woah. Karen is having another conniption fit down at the corner store. 😳 "
The only one of these I have not used myself is the last one.
Thanks for compiling this list!!!
I was bamboozled when I found out the origin of the word " girl". One day I was wondering about the ugliness of its sound. Old English used maiden, Dutch meid or meisje, German maedchen. My gigantic, million- words, dictionary said it comes from Old English " gharyl", a youth of any sex. Hope this was not too much gobbledygook.
I've always been a fan of hornswaggle and hoodwink.
New subscriber from Utah here!
Bodacious is always fun.
And an all time, extremely rude favorite: peckerwood. 😆
Hornswaggle, one of my favorites too! good one
Welcome,Erin! Enjoy
Welcome, Erin!
@@hedonista7593 also back in the 90s there was a bull used in professional rodeo named Bodacious, was one of the meanest and best bulls
Ah, someone after my own heart! I love words and their origins, too. I was going to suggest "skedaddle" and found someone already had. As I commented in the discussion on that post, it now means to "leave in a hurry" or simply "scram", but when originally coined during the American Civil War, it meant "to desert while under fire."
I've always assumed "panhandling" refers to the beggar's plate or "pan", which historically would be a metal bowl or plate. Thus begging using a plate could be described as "handling a pan" or "panhandling". There's a lot of evidence of metal bowls being used for begging, and they would have been very effectual before the introduction of paper currency. There's also the symbolic meaning to donating money into a plate the beggar would later eat from.
I love words that give you a strong hint of what they mean just by the sounds they make. If you never heard 'discombobulated' before, you could probably guess it doesn't mean happy or orange or numerous.
I surprisingly knew pulchritudinous. In freshman year graphic design we had to make a clothes brand label and i decided to use the Latin word for beauty which was pulchritudo. Nobody cares but I just had to say it lol
I care. That's brilliant.
I learned it from a "Bugs Bunny" cartoon as a child. Lol
Good word. BTW, it’s mis-spelled when listed (there’s an extraneous early “N”, pulchrituNdinous, I think it says.)
@@LostinthePond --- to your great words list I recently lived in the UK 9 years from 2010 to 2019 -- one word I did have to explain to the British was "boondocks" ditto "boonies." (Same meaning.) For the last five years I lived I lived in Brentford, just south of Ealing. I had heard some of the local high school boys use the word "dude" in the same sense people use/d it in California, some 50 years ago when I first came to California. Dude has dozens of meaning depending on how you say it, the context it's said in, the inflection in the voice, how long you draw the word out, if you accompany it with an eye roll, a lift of the eyes straight up, sideways skyward, etc. Extremely flexible. And I could tell that summer of 1970 the word was already well established in verbal usage with all those different meanings depending on context.
I've never heard this word!
snafu and fubar have become pronounced words but were originally humorous military acronyms.
military acronyms don't have to be humorous to get this treatment; consider humvee (originally hmmwv).
snafu: situation normal all f******* up
SNAFU, though perhaps surprisingly is British in origin. It was picked up by American soldiers from the British. This was much discussed at the time the term first came into popular use (World War 2).
And then he'd get demonetized
pyrovania - There's a newer military acronym that I heard recently: BOHICA (Bend Over Hear It Comes Again).
Brouhaha... I don't know if it's American, but I like it.
"Brouhaha" is from French, 15th century.
hootinanny
Kerfuffle.
@@lonelyglen Kerfluffle is one of my favorites- silly word for a silly emotion.
@@jgw5491 I thought it the act of fighting over something
Doohickey was always a favorite of mine. Having grown up in the American south (Atlanta, GA), I mostly think of phrases more than words...like "down yonder" (down the way a bit) and "fixin' to" (getting ready to).
I’m from Maryland and have used almost every one of these words. They’re great 👍
Another enjoyable video, thank you. It's refreshing to see someone with such a high intellect be so down to earth and not snobby at all.
Fuddy-duddy has much more to do with demeanor than with appearance.
As an Okie, native to the state that actually looks like a pan with a handle, it ticks me off when panhandle gets used for places that look nothing like one. I'm looking at you, Texas.
Texas looks like a pan if you're standing over-top of it, and OK looks like one from the side...FL looks nothing like either - unless the pan has melted and slid down the cabinet face...I also find it interesting that FL is only panhandle & peninsula...
@@NunYaO "Texas looks like a pan if you're standing over-top of it"
How? I don't see it at all. If anything it's diamond-shaped, but even that is a stretch.
@@ddawn23 goo.gl/images/GcxCC5
Ha! Touche.
Lol
How about "getting the heebee geebees" - is that British or American?
American, from 1923. May have been coined by the cartoonist, Billy De Beck.
@@LostinthePond That reminded me of the old song about "eyes" ~ Jeepers, Creepers, where did you get those Peepers?" ua-cam.com/video/d0lgswGOgrs/v-deo.html
Lost in the Pond isn’t that the guy that made the old Barney Google comics?
@@LostinthePond
DeBeck was a great coiner of phrases. Another cartoonist who you may find interesting to look into and was also a great coiner of word and phrases, was Tad Dorgan, who added a couple of dozens slang phrases to the permanent American lexicon. The most famous being "hot dog" to describe a frankfurter, the implication being that the mat a frankfurter was made from was neither beef nor pork.
I say something gives me the whim whams. Anyone else?
My mother still says several of these word in daily conversation. She also uses several other "strange words" all the time. We're laugh at her all the time, we always thought she had just made these words up as we had only heard them from her. 🤣 Thank you for this video. I am going to share with all my family members. 🙂
@Jeannise Schwerin Was one of those words your mother used "copporosity (spelling?)" Mama used that a lot as in "That doesn't suit my copporosity." I haven't seen it mentioned yet and I am way down the list of remarks to this post. I don't know if she made it up. We are from North Carolina.
My sister used to make up swear words, my favorite was "FART KNOCKERS". She had a scatological predilection. I used "DICK WAD" a lot, as it seemed to embody the messed up quality of masculine penis obsession with a dismissive contempt.
@@kristinedoty7876 As someone who works with elementary students, I need to find expressions that show frustration and disappointment without being vulgar.
Poodles!
Tartar sauce!
Dagnabbit!
@@freethebirds3578 I teach horticulture classes to elementary students, thanks for the tips!
Traditionally, the salutitorian makes the speech of welcomie at the beginning of the graduation ceremony while the valedictorian makes the speech that is both a farewel and an encouragement toward future endeavors. The salutitorian is the second ranking student while the valedictorian is the first ranking student,
Welcome rather
Whangdoodle? What kind of wackadoo would use a word like that?
This wackadoo.
Willie Wonka?
I had never heard of that word before, and when it first appeared on the screen I felt it struck me as quite rude.
@@JohnnyK60 I've only ever heard it as a jocular term for what we might call a male member.
Hahaha
"Kitty corner" is diagonal up here in N.E.
And down here in Oklahoma and Texas we say "catty corner" for diagonal.
@@JEBavido and some say dog-legged....
@@amandag417 I thought dog-legged was like if something is L-shaped to another thing? I mean, I guess it would be diagonal, too if you look at the points, but... I always thought dog-legged meant like, you had to go around a corner to get to it. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know... haha
@@Nimeariel , where I'm at I think it means L-shaped too. There's a Dog Leg Creek here, named that because of the L-shape it tracks. But language can be so local, I wouldn't dare say Amandag417 is wrong. :)
@@Nimeariel Hmmm... that's interesting, maybe people I know use the term incorrectly, I don't know...
“Your neck of the woods” I LOVE YOU!
One of my favorites that I remember from my childhood is Whipper Snapper. I have been known to use it as well when the kids were being rowdy.
I love your videos Laurence.
Clodhopper!
A term somewhat similar to clodhopper is bogtrotter, only a clodhopper is a rube or hayseed and a bogtrotter was a very insulting term for a person of Irish ancestry.
Nothing in the Light Films Clamdigger
@@samanthab1923 I've been called a clodcadool hopper by my older brother in my yoot.
we used that word to mean dirty ugly big old shoes .... like men's work boots
Clodhopper ... shoes
"Ornery" is such a great word. In my family we use it in the sense of "in a cantankerous and stubborn mood." So first thing in the morning, someone may announce, "I feel as ornery as a toad stuck in a pitch pond." (AKA a tar pit, as in La Brea.)
My dad, when speaking to one of his grandchildren, would often refer to them as, “schnicklefritz.” Often because he couldn’t always remember their names!
@Donna Rinker I am a North Carolinian who picked up that usage from my husband's Central Pennsylvanians. I usually make it sound like snickelfritz and it comes in very handy in my old age.
German origion, probably through Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsche). Schnickle is snap, schnick is snappy. Fritz is just a common name. So it translate to something like Johnny Jump-up, a quick-growing weed (flower).
My grandmother, who was the child of German immigrants on both sides, used to call us “schnicklefritzes” or “schpitzpoops” when we were being naughty. Although German was the first language of both her parents, they did not teach their 13 children to speak fluent German because they wanted them to be “American”.
Snicklefritz was a term of endearment from my Dad, especially when referring to any small child, but mostly for my younger brother and me. Thanks for the memories.
That’s what I call my favorite niece snickelfritz
I lived in both the Texas Panhandle, and the Nebraska one. Now, I live in Florida, but not in the Panhandle. I have used (or at least heard) of all of these. They are wonderful words. Thank you for giving them the spotlight!
I’ve lived in several states with panhandles (Florida, Texas, Oklahoma) as well as Washington with Panhandle Gap (on the Wonderland Trail in Mount Rainier National Park). But never in said panhandles themselves!
I cant imagine all the research you have to do for these videos. Thanks for all the hard work and effort put in for our entertainment.
My mother was born in NYC in 1919. She told me that when she was a kid, temporary tattoos -- the ones on a clear sheet to which you add water to make them stick on your arm -- were called "cockamamies".
When I was a kid my dad asked me "Sweetie go get the thing-a-ma-jig I need to fix the whatcha-ma-call-it." :)
I like this collection of words, very well done!
I absolutely LOVE this episode. My grandchildren get a kick from my old fashioned words. And I also love the comments from this episode. Lost in the Pond, you could write a book...with line drawing cartoons it would be hilarious.
Given your fondness for it, I was surprised you omitted "copacetic" from your list.
One of my grandpa's favorites. That and "capiche?" Both picked up during the war.
I first heard copacetic from a Californian.
I always reckoned that boondoggle had origin in a 'doggle', a kind of distracting tidbit like a shiny coin or a marble that you gave a kid to be quiet (back when there were less worries about them swallowing same) and 'boon', something that accomplished a good purpose. I just assumed that it had mutated to mean a useless or low value endeavor that had more hype value than real value but preoccupied the recipient. In other words, a doggle for doing a boon.
As a kid in Carolina we used boon, (a boon to the local economy) and doggle (give that youngin a doggle (or daggle) to hash em up)
I think the most prevalent definition of boondoggle today is the unnecessary business trip or extravagant location, like the annual sales meeting in Hawaii. Or that business trip to Atlanta this year that just happens to be Super Bowl week.
That sounds pretty likely to me!
In my family in Kentucky, the slang "Dunlap" replaced the slang term for a bulging midriff (or beer gut), a "spare tire."
Dunlap is a brand of racing car tire. And if you're midriff can conceal your belt, you say your Dunlap "has done lapped," which plays on both the over - lapped part of the body as well as what a real Dunlap does: conveys the car around the racetrack one time.
My father used the tire name "Dunlop", as in his belly dunloped over his belt.
Smart
Dunlap is the name of a town in Illinois. I’ve never heard it used for anything else! 😂
I heard one FUPA it should replace oh my did u see her gut replace gut with FUPA if u don't know ask I'll tell u lol
I could also see where "dunlap" might have evolved from "dewlap", the wattle around the neck of animals, like bunnies and cows. Just move it down a bit to the tummy, for the attractive "spare tire" look.
A word I use a lot is 'guesstimate". But growing up many discussions with family included boondocks, malarkey, conniption fit, doohickey, and ornery. The only ones not in our vocabulary were Snollygoster and Whangdoodle.
The reported etymology of okay is really neat as well, it came out of Boston and has become international in it's usage. Many of the words that you find fascinating from American English have come from the jazz age or the African-American community in the early 1900's. This slang-turned-language was one of the ways they distinguished themselves as a culture after slavery, now that they had opportunity to think internally. My favorite word from this era is saditty (there are variations in spelling), meaning a snobbish, arrogant, or superior person or someone of an upper class.
You really have the best of this style of channel. I always enjoy watching. Your videos are entertaining, enlightening, and you have a great talent for pointing out differences without being condescending or annoying.
You're going to be a huge success so I hope you keep it up.
Thank you. That means a lot to me!
I think modern usage fuddy-duddy can also be similar to a party pooper
Yes, the meaning is generally more than just “old-fashioned,” as was said in this video. It’s old-fashioned in a stubborn, awkward way that often impacts on the general mood. It’s a cross between “old-fashioned” and the British term “po-faced.”
Exactly
@@Scl45689
Or we could call them a "wet blanket". Roughly the same meaning.
ShadowDrakken New one could be fun sucker or killjoy.
Hm? Obsessive-Compulsive light? 😄
I think the flute you are looking for is a champagne flute. High society of the day would have been highfalutin.
Mark Gast ,
Champagne flutes weren't widely used until the 1990's, and even so, I doubt any ol cowpoke had any kind of flute in mind.
Rootin' tootin' highfalutin' cowboys ... heard it in some old Western back in the '60s
Fluting is what one did to your 'kerchief before placing it in your top breast pocket of your suit, showing your 'flair'. I suspect its placement in the pocket ranges from low, little showing, to high, much showing and being more pompous than others.
@@jol1958 From the song "Ragtime Cowboy Joe." "He's a higfalutin', rootin' tootin' son-of-a-gun from Arizona, Ragtime Cowboy Joe" ua-cam.com/video/2okR3fkNIxA/v-deo.html
You look like you literally just got out of bed and recorded this. Still in your jam-jams, and no coffee or anything. That's dedication.
This list is great ! I've never even thought about any of these words and how they could be special. NIce video !
YES CATTYWAMPUS! That’s southern right there
I now have definitions useful for the game "Balderdash"
Kitty Corner
Kitty wampus
Of course, not to be confused with something that is cattywampus is the wampus cat, a popular school mascot cat creature, usually depicted with six legs. A Wampus Cat is also now part of Harry Potter canon, so it has crossed over at least recently back to Britain.
I think there was a magazine in the 20's with "Wampus" in its tittlePossibly Wampuscat.I believe Wampus was very popular in the teens and twenties. The magazine was on the edge of humor.
@@miltonroberts7948 did Ted Geisel draw for it?
I've almost always heard "conniption" used with "fit", as in: "He's having a conniption fit!". I really enjoyed this video. Thanks!
I've never heard them separately.
Someone needs to write this book. It would be tragic to lose all these wonderful words. It only takes a single generation.
I'm surprised "rambunctious" isn't on this list, you've gone on about it before. Also, I'm from Southern California, and "cowabunga" is (or was) indeed surfer slang.
Cowabunga is also used by Bart Simpson.
@@jgw5491 Bart uses it because TMNT is exactly the sort of show a kid his age would be watching back when he started using it.
Don't forget "ruckus'!
@@jgw5491 also cowabunga was used in Peanuts when Snoopy was on his surfing fantasies.
Cookie Monster uses cowabunga on Sesame Street at times.
Here in Texas, I've usually heard catawampus as "cattywampus" (it was one of my father's absolute favorite words); and relatedly, catacorner as "catty-corner" although I know other regions of the US often use "kitty-corner". It's not hard to see how the US can originate so many interesting words. From the beginning, we've been a nation of mixed heritage and languages living in close proximity to each other. English itself being a west-Germanic language with ~50% of the modern vocabulary supplemented by French borrowings (Anglo-Norman), our ability to mongrelize the tongue is seemingly endless. Place a bunch of English speakers alongside Dutch and German speakers, mix in some Spanish and French speakers, and have them all try to converse. People will invariably absorb words from each other and mis-pronounce them, blend them, etc. This is how language evolves--and the 18th & 19th century melting pot in particular intensified that. I love our unique words and am happy to see them appreciated by folks who didn't grow up here. Some of my other favorite American-born words are: whatchamacallit, whatsit, thingamabob / thingy, doodad (all similar to doohickey), diddly-squat, copacetic, filibuster, gerrymander, hornswaggle, moxie, OK, rambunctious, skedaddle, and one popularized by Edgar Allen Poe: tintinnabulation.
One common Americanism that doesn't make these lists it "the back forty." Perhaps many American urbanites don't know it either. Much of America was platted in sections one mile square, or 640 acres. It was further subdivided into 16 40 acre portions. Every farm had one of these 40 acres portions that was in the back, so the back forty is a place removed or separated from everything.
We always say north 40.
Where the outhouse was located
I've heard "back forty" but more often I've heard it said as "lower forty". In "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobbie Gentry sings "There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow". She was from the Mississippi Delta, so maybe there are regional variations?
We’re parked out in the 40-acres!
That might be because Laurence is talking about single words and "the back forty" is a phrase.
Did you overlook "doozy"? It means excessive, over the top. It comes from the Duesenberg V-12 car, manufactured during the Great Depression. They cost at least as much as a house. Each car had a plaque on the dashboard attesting that "this car has been driven over one hundred miles per hour". In those days, that was just a stupendous achievement.
Just discovered your channel & am enjoying your observations on these "two great nations separated by a common language". In the Southern Appalachians, "cattywampus" is interchangeable with "Wampus Cat," a legendary beast, perhaps of Cherokee origin, something like a mountain lion that walks on its hinds legs like a human. It doesn't seem to have ill intent, but when men are camping in the mountains (perhaps on a hunting weekend) & drinking around a campfire, the Wampus Cat will sometimes leap into the campsite & dance around the fire for a few moments before stealing away into the shadows, leaving the stunned campers questioning their sanity. As a native of East Tennessee, I have known "people who knew people" who claimed to have encountered the Cattywampus in such circumstances. In these parts, "cattycornered" is used to indicate a diagonal orientation. Best wishes.
Gullywasher is another word I like.
Frog-strangler is used here a lot that is used as an alternative to gullywasher. Fun words!
Isn't that a big ass storm, Cimmaronwm?
A gullywasher. Great word, tho.
@@susanmurphy958 gullywasher and frog-strangler both mean a storm that causes flooding.
@@morgainnetaar OK 👍 Nancy.
I live in L.A. we don't use that word here. But I did hear a lady use it on TV once along time ago. 😉
@@susanmurphy958 we have our own wonderful and colo(u)rful lexicon in the south. 😊
Hoosegow is a good one...Along with Doozy
Hoosegow is from the Spanish juzgado (the J is pronounced like H is in English) meaning a court in session. Because the courthouse and the jail were often combined, this lead to the meaning of hoosegow as jail.
@@petuniasevan Thanks Kimberly!
Doozy is a shortened form of "Duesenberg", a luxury car brand that was popular in the first half of the 20th century. Doozy is used as a superlative, meaning that whatever you are describing is first rate or exceptional.
My old farmer dad, who was born in Michigan in 1908, used to say we don't want to end up in the hoosegow. I thought it sounded like something from the old west. But he didn't call a bar a saloon. He called it a beer garden. I wonder where that came from.
Poppycock is also a brand of toffee popcorn with peanuts mixed in it
I was going to say the same think I'm glad I checked the comments so as not to be redundant.
If poppycock and cockamamie indeed both come from “New Amsterdam,” the “cock” portion is from the Dutch word for excrement. One source I read long ago said “poppycock” originally mean “soft manure,” so maybe “cockamamie” had something to do with manure also. Sorry if this interferes with your enjoyment of the trademarked popcorn mix with that name!
I'm pretty sure that the word poppycock is only allowed to be used with the word piffle.
I am utterly gobsmacked at this video! Thank you!
3:45 doohickey, synonymous with thingamabob, thingamajig, whatsit, and doodad plus several others.
Wow I feel so BAMBOOZLED!
Recombobulation Area☺ This was on a sign in the Milwaukee Airport about 10 years ago. Was the area where everyone was to put shoes back on, etc., after the security inspection.
I've always experienced Valedictorian as the top student (best GPA) in the senior class, and in larger schools there may be up to 4 Valedictorians. It's the Salutorian who gives the student address at the graduation ceremony. Sometimes it was the 2nd best student (as a form on acknowledgenent, or sometimes the administration will accept applications from students who were interested, then the administration would select the "Salutorian." Some (especially smaller) schools separate them partially to make the ceremony slightly longer (like when your graduating class is under 40, maybe only even in the teens, if that). The Valedictorian would recieve an award and give a short, 5 minute speech, but the Salutorian gave the main address. I grew up in a very rural area (3 public high schools, plus 1 Catholic school in the entire county). My school was largest because we were the largest city in the county (population 2,500ish), but we also got most of the kids from the "small" towns in the county, a couple of which had an elementary school at least. Most of our classes were in the upper 20's- 30's, my class was gonna be the first one over 40 students, until I moved away my sophomore year, and then a group of boys were arrested for multiple bank robberies (and 1 for attempted murder) their senior year. The other 2 high schools in the county had graduating classes of 3-4 and 8-10 students. When the class is that small, they want to do things to lengthen this ceremony, and make it more special/memorable. All 3 schools did slide shows with 4-6 pics of each student (depending on class size). Baby picture, a few random pics submitted by parents (usually 1 funny pic), then their senior portrait. Even with all that, plus a speech by the principal and superintendent, you'd be lucky if the entire ceremony lasted an hour. At our "big" school we could usually get to 90 minutes. I remember when the school finally had a large enough elementary school grade that they had to split it into 2 classes (and totally expand the school to make room for the larger classes behind them). The Jr High was in the High school building (across the street from the elementary school, and had some overlapping teachers. The only cafeteria was in the elementary building, so we had to run across the street for lunch, starting in 7th grade, and the elementary building had no gymnasium, so we either used the playground, or walked over to the high school, which had 2 Gyms (they'd done an addition about 10 years before to add a new gym -- with a wood floor even! and a stage on one end for the school plays and concerts, and backstage entrances to the new choir and band rooms. It also housed the art room, and wood shop -- mandatory 1/2 semester of each, and 1 semester of home-economics (half sewing, half cooking) -- for boys and girls during 7th and 8th grade. During high school you could take 2 electives: home-ec, shop, art, band, or choir. (Or 1 elective and a study hall, but never 2 study halls). Unfortunately after freshman year you were kind of locked on, because if you tried to change later, you'd be behind. Shop class (in high school) was definitely more for the kids who were definitely not college-bound. (farmers or tradespeople). They split their time between woodworking, and small-engine repair (usually lawnmowers). I'm sure most of that has been phased out (or at least scaled back now, especially because those rooms took up lots of space, and schools became much more college-oriented for a while, even though (especially in the very rural areas) university was very unlikely for at least half the students. Now, in big cities, they've become more realistic, and students can spend half the day on traditional academics, and half the day on vocational training (IT, catering, massage therapy, cosmetology, mechanics, public safety (law enforcement or firefighters) carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and other trades, etc. It is much more logical and practical than forcing everyone into the 1-track academic path. My little sister had a friend who graduated high school ready to take her cosmetology exam the next week, and become a hairdresser, which is what she knew she wanted to do. This way the state essentially paid for her cosmetology school, and she graduated high school ready to enter the workforce. If she'd been forced to stay with just academics, she would have failed grades, or (more likely) just dropped out. This way the school graduation stats higher, and students are more prepared for their real futures (and enter their professions with less (or no) debt. It also helps the college-bound students by eliminating the less academically-inclined students from the classes so it's more focused, and just the kids who actually want to be there. Even tho we moved to a larger town while I was in high school, there wasn't much vocational training back then, so those students became frustrated and disruptive in the higher level academic classes. (Can't say that I blame them much. It was really beyond them, and wasn't preparing them for life after school either, but they didn't want the stigma of being a dropout.)
I remember watching the Disney version of The Little Mermaid as a child in the early 90s. I believe Ariel referred to either her father, King Trident, or Sebastian as a "fuddy duddy" for not letting her do what she wanted to do and raining on her parade. I remember liking the sound of the word.
And cowabunga brings me back to my childhood love of the party animal Michelangelo.
Fun video!
10:06
You're quite correct about that one, Laurence
A lot of people, Myself included, actually did think that "Poppycock" was a British word that carried over to the American lexicon
mojo, tintinnabulation, skedaddle, bummer (fairly certain that one means something different in the UK), moxie, filibuster, maverick, bloviate, bonkers
@Rebecca Mattis From what I can find bloviate is pseudo-Latin. President W G Harding brought the word to national attention (along with normalcy).
My favorite presidential nickname is "Tintinnabulating Teddy", meaning Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and referring to his loud and constantly running mouth. It's a funny nickname for a guy who said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
I may be biased, as I am one of this word, but one of my favorite words is Cackalacky. It refers to either the state of North Carolina or someone from North Carolina.
It's either of the Carolinas. You're from North Cackalacky
@@Markle2k Codswallop. That's just South Carolina propoganda. There is no North or South Cackalacky, and any real Cackalacky knows better. :)
I must note that word for when i visit.
My Dad calls our state North Cackalacky sometimes. I can’t recall hearing someone call a person that though.
I thought you were gonna say crackalackin' lmao
my favorite is Dagnabbit.
schnookered is a good one too. 😀. I enjoyed your list. From
time to time, I’ve used some of these words and others I had forgotten about. But I’m going to use them sometime soon. 😂
One of your best videos I’ve seen! Love great words and their history. ❤
Don't be such a hoity-toity fuddy-duddy!
I like that