Funny words. I was trying to find out the precise meaning of that 'greeblies' word I mentioned earlier, as (presumably) learned by young NZ'ers. Now I've run across the concept of "family slang Invented words," described recently in The Edmonton Journal. You know, quirky 'words' which are typically coined by children learning to speak, then adopted by the rest of the family. Some examples:

Flat meat -- cold cuts. "Two hundred grams of the Black Forest flat meat."

Flip a flooey -- make a U-turn. "Just flip a flooey at the next corner."

Floppy cheese -- processed cheese slices.

Hoho -- to shave; derived from the Santa beard created by applying shaving cream. "Daddy has to hoho every morning before work."

Hooshmie -- main dish of pasta, hamburger, tomato soup and onion.

Jibrone -- an idiot. "What a jibrone."

Lurgs -- feeling of revulsion or disgust. "Possum road-kill gives me the lurgs."

Pedal-Estrian -- bicycle rider.

Schnoosh -- dog's sneeze. "Rover schnooshed all over me."

Shnarfle -- dog's deep sniff. "The dog shnarfled my pant leg."

Scrud -- icky food residue. "Please clean the scrud from the ketchup bottle."

Washamadryer -- to wash laundry. "Go do the washamadryer because Stephen doesn't have any clean underwear left."

While -- a unit of time very similar to a minute. "I'll be finished in a couple of whiles."


So, I wonder if any of you Rink-Dinks with kids (or trainable parents :) have come up with similar slang terms unique to your own family?

Wolf "Code 29 -- 'Everything is Dave's fault.'" spirit