I’m prone to making up new words. Given that all words are made up in order to describe something, why not add to the collection? I rarely do this intentionally, the new words often just come out when I am attempting a description. Blustrious gustards is about wind, derived from blustery and gusts. BA and I were both entertained by the phrase, so its been a part of our house language for a few years.
I’m reminded of blustrious today because it has been. The day started out cool and still, with a bright blue sky. A few hours later, a cold front started through, heralded by swatches of dark clouds and a rising west wind, blowing steadily at 20-30 mph, and with much stronger gusts. Given our snow earlier this week, a number of trees have rapidly shed their leaves, and we’ve had rustling dervishes of leaves spinning by.
Schnobbers. Here’s another new word for you, in use more than 20 years at our house. What’s a schnobber? A schnobber is one of those zinging, twitching body movements, thats bigger than a twitch, but different from a chill or a shudder.
Many other neologisms in our house are variations on malapropisms, again kept because we found them entertaining. The danger of this is that after a time, its easy to forget the conventional term, and then be surprised when someone else looks quizzically at you when you ask if they want to go to the vinegar center or fish museum. Visitor center and aquarium being the official words.
My suspicion is that mine is not the only household that has its own set of terms. I’d love to find out about yours. If you’re willing to share, put them in the comments so we can all enjoy!
Curious Steph 
I can’t believe you guys had snow 🙊🙈. I’m so not ready for that!!
I love the made up words–I also love when they are agreed upon by large groups of people. I had one for you that I was sure wasn’t actually a word but now I’ve just looked it up and it is–SIGNAGE. I could have sworn it wasn’t actually a word, but it’s used all the time in the industry I work in. Guess I was wrong!!
Happy Sunday Steph! x
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glad you like the made up words, Cat. And your comment about signage and your industry reminds me of how many industry-specific words there are and how much jargon develops. As I recall my years in residency, we had a whole lot of them to describe a variety of conditions and circumstances.
On Snow. one of the joys of altitude is the wild weather swings we get. Snow last monday, and predicted to be in the mid 70’s most of this week, although chilly 40-ish at night. Variety anyone?
Cheers to you!
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When I was growing up, my father had a few phrases in German that he spoke all the time, because his mother was fluent in German (and grew up with parents who only spoke German.) I thought that was just normal until I was old enough to realize that most other households didn’t speak German now and then!
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Yes, its amazing how whatever we grow up with is our normal and our frame of reference. It can be quite surprising, as you discovered, to realize that it doesn’t go that way in other households. My mom had a few German phrases that she used as well, I think from her grandmother, who spoke german as a child.
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Thanks, Susie, and l love hearing about how the word play goes in your house!
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Great made up phrase, ‘blustrious’ in particular definitely sounds like it could be a real word! You’ve got me thinking now, I don’t know whether we have any ‘house’ words. Will mull that over.
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Well, if you don’t have any, you can always make a few up. And feel free to use blustrious, should it suit!
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A blustrious gale
Illustrious, run to me
Create something new
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Haiku, thank you!
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Steph,
I enjoyed your made up “house words”. A good friend of ours, with whom we often mountain bike and hike uses “age” at the end of things to watch out for: roots become rootage, abrupt drops, dropage.. spoiled vegetables in the frig, spoilage & so on and so forth! It is the duty of the first person encountering these things to share, in appropriate volumes, so as to warn the other bikers, hikers or frig explorers. Living, as we do here in northwestern Wyoming, fairly loud and firm announcements are also great for letting wildlife know we are near…elk, moose, deer, and bears!
Fall and its’ color and wild climate changes is my favorite of the four seasons. Winter is my 2nd fav, and our first week of Nov, snow is forecast for four days!! Yeah..
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