Cat Butter

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, my name is Kurt Johnson. I’m calling from Shelbyville, Indiana.

And I had a question about cat butter.

Excuse me?

Cat butter. Cat butter?

Cat butter.

Yeah, it’s the stuff that you have in the corner of your eye when you wake up in the morning.

My mom, growing up, always called it cat butter.

And I have never found even this.

And she’s from Shelbyville also.

And I’ve never found anyone who has used that terminology.

Often it’s sleep or eye boogers.

Right, right, yeah.

Those are the ones I know.

But I’ve never heard it referred to as cat butter.

The image I get is of a kitten who’s been sick.

Aww.

Yeah, because they do.

They get the rheumatic eyes or something, right?

If you say so.

Yeah, they have the stuff in the corners there.

And so I assume that that’s where it comes from, but I really have no idea.

Cat butter for sleep in the eyes.

Martha, am I gathering that this is new to you, too?

It’s completely new to me.

Yeah, I’ve never heard of it.

That’s cool, though.

I love it.

Lots of words for this already, but hey, we can use another one.

Yeah.

Kurt, what is your family extraction?

Are you German, maybe?

Central Indiana?

Yeah, my mom’s maiden name was actually boring, as in dull.

So I believe that’s of German origin.

Oh, okay. I just wonder, it sort of sounds German to me, cats and something, but I don’t know.

Well, let’s see what the rest of our listeners have to say about this.

There certainly are a lot of terms for the gunk that’s in the corner of your eyes when you wake up.

Yeah, what do you call it?

Sleep. In my family, it was always sleep, but I’ve learned some since, like eye boogers, which Kurt also said.

Eye jam.

Eye jam. Sleepy jacks is an unusual one, but some people, yeah, sleepy jacks.

That’s kind of, it’s got a catchy sound to it, right?

I like that. I like that.

Eye gook or just some people pluralize it and call it sleeps, the sleeps in the corner of your eye.

Oh, that’s nice.

And then also sleep dust or sleep dirt.

Do you know those?

I’ve heard of sleepy dust.

Sleepy dust.

Okay.

Yeah.

And sleepies.

I think we called them sleepies growing up.

I did later learn the term gound.

It looks like ground but without the R.

That’s right.

That’s sort of a medical term.

You don’t hear it much but for dry ucus.

G-O-U-N-D.

Yeah.

Very good.

You never used that one, did you, Kurt?

That’s a new one.

I think it’s interesting because it’s one of those things that almost every person,

I mean, everybody has them at some point when you wake up,

But there’s no standardized word for it.

And I speak Spanish, and it’s one of those little things,

And there’s a word in Spanish for it.

La Gana or something like that?

Right, La Gana.

So it’s standardized down there, but I think at least in American English,

There’s no standard word for it.

That’s a really good point.

Well, let’s see what everyone else has to say.

Phone lines open, 877-929-9673,

Or send your word for the stuff that’s in the corner of your eyes

When you wake up to words@waywordradio.org.

Kurt, thank you for calling today.

Thank you so much.

Our pleasure.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.