Abyssinia! Ethiopia!

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Melissa. I’m calling from Indianapolis.

Hi, Melissa. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

How about them Butler Bulldogs?

Oh, yes. That was a heartbreaker.

Sure was. Sure was. But they acquitted themselves very well.

Yes, they did.

You know who that is, Grant, right?

This is a forensics team or a championship?

This is the math club at the university, right?

Never mind. Melissa, what would you like to talk about?

I am calling in about a little phrase that my dad used to say to us,

Well, still says to us, when we were kids, and it is a way that he says goodbye.

He learned it from a former boss of his back when he was, oh, probably 20 or so,

Worked at a paint store.

And as the boss would leave the shop, he would turn and say, Abisimah, and the response was Ethiopia.

I have no idea what this means or where it came from.

So my dad would always say this to us as kids, and when we’d say goodbye, we’d say, Abisimah, Ethiopia.

And that was how we would say goodbye to one another.

I love it, love it, love it.

Wait, so they would say Abisimia? What’s the word?

Abysimah is how we say it, and I don’t know if it evolved over time.

I think it did.

It did.

I think what they were saying was Abyssinia.

Yeah.

And what they were doing was a classic play on words for I’ll be seeing ya.

Okay.

So I say Abyssinia, and you say Ethiopia, and it’s kind of like I’m saying I’ll be seeing you,

And then you’re responding with another name for that part of Africa.

Gotcha.

Right, because Abyssinia is the old name for the kingdom of Ethiopia.

Well, very cool.

How far back do you remember this, Melissa?

Oh, my goodness.

We’ve been saying this since I was very young, and none of us ever really knew what it meant.

We were just saying it to one another.

So it’ll be great to tell everybody.

So you were very young when, the 1980s?

Yes, yeah.

Oh, that’s so great.

Now, how far back are we talking here?

Because the earliest that I can find in print is in the 1970s, but it’s certainly got to be a lot older than that.

No, it’s in the 1930s for sure in the dictionary.

Oh, really?

Right.

Okay, great.

That’s fantastic.

Just one of those sort of goofy things like after a while crocodile or in Spanish, que te pasa calabaza, which means what’s up, pumpkin?

See you on the flip side.

Well, my dad’s birthday is next week, and I can’t wait to surprise him with this information.

Well, it’s free.

Aren’t you going to buy him anything?

An iPad or something?

No, that’s darling.

I’m sure he’s going to enjoy that.

Abyssinia, the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia.

Gotcha.

All right.

Cool, Melissa.

Thanks for calling.

We be seeing you.

Thank you so much.

All right, Ethiopia.

Bye-bye.

It’s been real.

Toot-a-pip.

Bye.

What did your old man or your old lady used to say?

Give us a call and talk about it.

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