Weird Word Wednesday!

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bowling, fun words, grammar, grandma, grandparents, Wednesday, weird word

We’re here again, at that exciting midpoint of the week when the weekend is in sight and all is well with the world. Let’s brighten it up even further with a weird word!

Today’s weird word is nighwhat. It’s an obsolete word meaning “nearly, almost.” If we take a gander at the first part of the word, “nigh,” we see it can either mean “near in space or time,” or “almost.”

Because it’s rather obsolete, nighwhat sounds downright odd when spoken. There might be pockets of culture where this word is used, and if you know of such a place, let me know. Using nighwhat in a sentence becomes tricky, but it can be done! Just think of an instance when something almost happened, and you’ve got a start.

As a novice bowler, Edna had no idea she was facing the wrong way when it came time for her turn. Otto was nighwhat flattened after she threw her ball into the crowd.

Nighwhat also reminds me of an interview I did a few years ago with a couple who had been married for 70 years. Their daughter called with background information, giving me a heads-up that her parents used words like “pritnear.” I laughed, because my grandparents used “pritnear” very often. It’s similar in meaning to “nighwhat,” and my grandma would say something like, “It’s pritnear time to get ready for dinner.”

So…today’s challenge is to use “nighwhat” (or pritnear!) in a sentence. Tell me about how you worked this quirky word into your everyday speech.

Before you know it, it’ll be nighwhat time for our next Weird Word Wednesday!

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Weird Word Wednesday!

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Barney, editing, Florence, funny, humor, Italy, proofreading, semiopathy, sign, signs, Wednesday, weird, words, writer

Wednesdays carry so much promise in our work-related culture. They’re symbolic of making it halfway through the workweek, of climbing that mountain to the peak and glimpsing Friday, glittering like a jewel only a few days away.

Humor certainly helps, and today’s weird word is a fun one. It’s semiopathy and although it’s vaguely medical-sounding, it really has nothing to do with that field. Semiopathy is the tendency to read humorously inappropriate meanings into signs.  Plain old signs like the kind that fill our world with instructions and information, not portents or omens or the doom-inducing kinds of signs. 

Take the one to the left. Semiopathy suggests that if the poor kid is ready to snap, if he’s reached critical mass after watching one too many episodes of “Barney and Friends” he can toddle over to aisle four to find some relief. Probably not what the sign’s creator had in mind, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

How about this one? Semiopathy has me imagining ladies in high heels and men wearing slick-bottomed dress shoes, all in a tangled heap at the bottom of the ramp because they didn’t “slip carefully,” while those who mastered the skill continue on to work, minus the embarrassing mishaps, scoffing slightly at their fallen comrades.

When we were in Italy last year, we stopped in Florence. It’s a wonderful city, full of rich history, absolutely beautiful architecture, great food…and one strange sign. This one popped up all over the place, and we were at a loss to figure out what it meant. No carrying heavy bars across the street? No lugging long suitcases along the sidewalk? We finally asked someone, who smiled in a very understanding fashion, like she’d been asked that many times before. She said it meant, simply, “no crossing the street at that point.” Hmmmm….I’m still not sure about this one.

So – semiopathy is the tendency of reading humorously inappropriate meanings into signs. We see them randomly, and like a small ray of sunshine and Weird Word Wednesday, they brighten our day in unexpected ways. This last sign really has no semiopathic meaning, but I share it because it’s a hoot anyhow. Have a great week!

Weird Word Wednesday!

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copywriting, editing, gongoozler, humor, proofreading, rubbernecker, slacker, small town, Wednesday, weird, words, writer, writing

Wow is right! We’re halfway through the week, so it’s time for another weird, week-brightening word.

Today’s word is gongoozler.

Perhaps you know one. You maybe even work with one. But first we need to back up, historically speaking, just a tad.

The word, less than a century old, came about to describe people who stood idly by, watching activity on canals. Boats, fishermen, barges, you name it, a gongoozler would spend his days hangin’ out, watching river life floooow by.

The term was broadened to mean any person who watches work swirl around them while they do nothing. In the very small town where my grandparents lived, the older, retired men of the community would gather a few times a week at a local coffee shop to play dominoes while they kvetched about their neighbors, the glacially slow pace at which their Social Security checks took to arrive, and life in general.

The monotony broke one day when a street crew arrived to redo the storm drains. Men in orange hard hats directed the pounding of jackhammers and rumbling backhoes as an entire block of Main Street was torn up for a week or two, the relentless racket making a good game of dominoes impossible. Instead the elder statesmen headed for the sidewalks, watching – and commenting, I’m sure – as new drains were installed.

My uncle dubbed this bunch the Sidewalk Superintendents, who bore a striking resemblance to the gongoozlers of old.

See where I was going with my earlier question? I’m sure you know a gongoozler – someone who has no problem watching work take place while they give no thought to helping out.

We call them slackers or rubberneckers, and either way, they’re slightly annoying. And, alas, workplaces are filled with these people. There’s no way around it, save for hiding in the bathroom all day, which becomes impractical, especially when lunchtime rolls around.

I think the women of my grandparents’ town knew how to get rid of their gongoozlers – toss them a box of dominoes and tell them there’s a hot game happening downtown!