Cop Clot

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Rick Hall.

Hi, Rick. Where are you calling from?

Tallahassee, Florida.

Well, welcome to the show. How can we help you?

Well, I’ve got a new word.

Oh, please.

A new word that was invented by my brother Dave Hall.

And many of us have seen this anytime we’re driving around on a rural highway or an interstate section.

It’s called a cop clot.

Cop clot.

What’s a cop clot?

A cop clot, I’ve got a formal definition for it.

Oh, please.

It’s the cautious reaction of responsible yet fearful vehicle operators motoring along an arterial highway in a compact, same-speed, congested platoon due to the watchful eye of the state highway patrolman in their midst.

So in plain speak, you slow down when you see a cop.

Exactly.

And the problem is you get into a little cluster of people that are going much slower than they normally go.

Yeah.

Been there, done that.

Totally.

I did it just this morning.

There’s a bunch more terms for this, by the way.

One of my favorite terms, well, there’s one term, police chase, which is pretty common.

Because it looks like everyone’s chasing the police, right?

Because they’re in the front.

All you need is the helicopter, the TV copter above, right?

It looks like everyone’s.

But the other one, it’s a name for the car that is causing this, and that’s Parade Maker.

Parade Maker.

Yeah, and so it’s not just the police car that’s slowing everybody down, but there’s that one guy who somehow has managed to block more than one lane, and you can’t get around him, and you’re like, oh, he’s a parade maker, because it just all seems to stream behind them, and you’re like waving to the kids on the side of the road.

Yeah.

Well, this relates to our highway system as a system of arterioles.

Oh, yes.

Oh, oh, oh.

It’s a body relationship.

Perfect.

That’s one part of it, but it’s a clot in the middle of that artery.

That’s nice.

The other part is it’s a little bit of alliteration.

It kind of sounds like a horse kind of going along at a slow speed.

Yeah, or somebody with coconuts.

Yeah, it has a lot to recommend it.

You know, I’m Googling this.

I’ve Googled this, and I can see, though, other people have coined this term, which is nothing to take away from you.

You said it was your brother or your brother-in-law?

Yeah.

There’s nothing to take away from you, but the fact that multiple people have come up with this probably means it’s got a good chance of surviving.

Wow.

It’s got all those features that you talked about that are all signs of success.

It’s useful.

It’s easy to remember.

It’s easy to say.

We’ve all been there.

Yeah.

And it’s fun to be a part of the evolution of the English language.

There we go.

So a cop clot is this cluster of cars that just won’t pass a police officer on the highway.

Exactly.

My brother Dave has another word.

It’s when you have that big thing of iced tea, you know, in the red plastic glass, and it’s a hot summer day and you want to get the last bit of tea out, you’ve tilted it up and it begins to cascade down onto your nose and upper lip.

And that’s called an isolanch.

Isolanch, yes, because it sticks for a fraction of a second at the bottom of the cup, and it all comes down at once.

There’s a tipping point, and then boom, it’s right down in your face.

These are both great words, cop clot, isolanch.

We’re going to spread these out to the world and see how they catch on, all right?

Very good.

Thanks for your call.

We really appreciate it.

Bye-bye, Rick.

Bye-bye now.

We know that you’ve got terms for this crazy stuff that you do.

We all do these things when we drive.

We are car culture, after all.

Tell us about your car culture words, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.