Does your family have a word for the cardboard tube left over from a roll of toilet paper? A caller says his family refers to them Oh-ah, Oh-ahs. Turns out many families have their own terms for them, including drit-drit, dawda dawda, hoo-hoo, to-do, taw-taw, and der der.
Transcript of “”Oh-ah, Oh-ah”: That’s How We Roll (minicast)”
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Welcome to another minicast from A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
In just a few weeks, we’ll be back with our new fall season of hour-long episodes.
In the meantime, I wanted to share a true confession.
No, it’s not from me. This comes from a guy named Joe, who lives in San Diego.
Okay. My whole life, my family has referred to the empty cardboard tubes inside rolls of toilet paper and paper towels as Oa Oas.
Oa Oa?
Oa Oas.
Yes. Oa Oa. We spell it O-A-O-A when we spell it. I’ve never heard any family use this before.
Is there a story there?
Yeah, there actually is.
And I didn’t realize this until about a week ago when I was actually talking with my mother about this.
So when my older sister was real little, I guess she used to wander around the house with these things, and she loved the sound her voice made when she talked through it, and she used to run around the house going, oh, oh, all through it.
And so it kind of stuck, and we’ve been calling it that for, well, now almost 30 years now.
That’s great.
I can dig that.
My son likes to do that, too.
He will fish them out of the recycling bin, even though he’s not supposed to, and walk around the house shouting things down the tube.
Well, I guess it’s better out of the recycling bin than out of the trash can.
Yes, definitely.
Well, that’s a great story, Joe.
Thanks for sharing that.
Yeah, not a problem.
You know, Joe, it’s really interesting.
There’s a book called Family Words by Paul Dixon, and there are a lot of these words for that particular thing.
For cardboard tubes.
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
He’s collected them from people all over.
Some people call them da-da’s or da-da-da-da’s or to-do’s or hoo-hoo’s.
Actually, there’s this one family who calls toilet paper rolls hoo-hoo’s, but if it’s one of those great big giant rolls that you get around Christmas time with the wrapping, you know, for wrapping paper, that’s a hoo-hoo-hoo.
Oh, I see.
That’s great.
I mean, I’ve heard dirt dirt from before, but never anything other than bars.
You’ve heard what?
I’ve heard dirt dirt.
Dirt dirt.
That’s in the book, too.
Really?
Yeah.
I didn’t know that you needed another word for the name of the cardboard tube.
It’s a cardboard tube.
I wouldn’t think so, you know, unless it’s like get me that dirt dirt out of the recycle – or hand me that dirt dirt so I can recycle it.
All right.
Gee, who knew there were so many words for toilet paper roll besides toilet paper roll?
Did your family call it something different?
Or do you have another family word you’d like to share with us?
Send them along.
Our address is words@waywordradio.org.
Or if you just can’t wait, post it in our discussion forum.
You’ll find that and much more at waywordradio.org.
Thanks for listening.
For A Way with Words, I’m Martha Barnette.
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My brother and I called them “awk-awks” and they were a prized possession. Now, as a third grade teacher, I still call my PVC “microphone” in my classroom an “awk-awk.”