Monday, September 17, 2007

A Way With Words


What do you notice about this sentence?

"A rough-coated, dough-faced thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into his slough he coughed and hiccoughed."

The English syllable ough can be pronounced nine different ways! (In case you were wondering, slough means swamp and is pronounced "slew." Plowman, and hiccuped are the alternative spellings, although the pronunciation is the same.)

Words are so great! We mix and match only 26 characters and come up with enough to fill all the libraries, and all the blogs. How we say something identifies not only our thoughts, but where we grew up, our education, even our age. You say aunt and I say ant, I say he's cool, you say he's hot, I say that's good, and you say that's bad....

The Gab Blog had a fun post on different vernacular around the country. What about slang that changes from generation to generation? Ten phrases that date someone for me are:
  1. Give me a "ring" (on the phone.)
  2. He's my "main squeeze."
  3. I was "tickled" that she'd visit.
  4. She's "foxy."
  5. "Daddio"
  6. "Wait up!"
  7. "Tablebacks" (meaning "save my place.")
  8. "Wash up." (pronounced "warsh up")
  9. "Beta bangs"
  10. "Tootle-loo!"
Do you have ten to add?

5 comments:

MissKris said...

Hmmmm...maybe because it's barely past 5:30 am and I'm still a little fuzzy-brained, but looking at your list the only one that came to mind was having "dibs" on a chair or seating place for your #7. I'm sure once I wake up and think on it some more, something else will come to mind! And I love words too...one of my favorites is "gobsmacked"!, which I'm sure you must've heard a lot when you lived in the UK...or at least HEARD it. Sure isn't one we Americans use daily anymore, that's for sure.

Christie said...

I'm a product of the 80s, so my best addition would be "like totally awesome" or rad.

melissa walker said...

The big one for the 90s was "sweet" but more like "saweeeet!"

mama jo said...

back in my growing up years...it was groovy, remember mom always said "groovy gravy"? also, "mod", "boss","bitchin"..mom hated that one...my kids always said "dude"..

MissKris said...

I heard one on an episode on HGTV...don't remember which show...where teen brothers had their room redone. One of them looked at it, in total HAPPY awe, and said, "UGLY!" so that must be the new word of the "00's"!