Lauren from La Crescenta, California, says her 98-year-old grandfather uses a rather obscure saying. As a kid, if Lauren or her sister won a meaningless contest, he’d award them an imaginary prize he called the crocheted gidote. Or maybe that’s gadoty, gadote, guhdody, or gadodie — we’ve never seen the term before. Similar phrases include “You win the crocheted teapot” and “You win the crocheted bicycle,” all suggesting winning a prize that’s as useless as, say, a chocolate teapot. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Crocheted Gidote”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. This is Lauren calling from La Crescenta, California.
Hi, Lauren. Where in California?
La Crescenta.
What’s going on, Lauren?
Well, actually, I’m excited to talk to fellow word nerds.
We always are. I’m glad you called.
Yeah. My grandfather is going to be 98 this year, and he has shared a wonderful phrase with our family, and I’ve never heard anybody else use it other than us, and I was wondering if you might shed some insight into what it means and how we got it.
We will try.
98.
98 years old.
That’s a good run.
He’s very happy and healthy, and we’re just lucky to have him.
That’s fantastic.
What’s the expression?
The phrase is called crocheted gododi. And what it means is we’ll use it, if I ask him, he’ll say it means a nothing. And so we’ll say, like, for example, if we’re at the dinner table discussing something, and if I say the answer is A and my sister says the answer is B, and I look it up, and I’m right. He’ll say, oh, well, then you win the crocheted gdode.
Gdode.
Yeah.
Do you have any idea how to spell that?
No.
G-A-D-O-T-E-D-E?
I’m not sure.
It sounds like gdode, though.
It’s hard for the American pronunciation of T’s, though.
It could be T’s or D’s, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Gdode.
You had to have asked him about this before.
Yeah, I did. And he says he doesn’t know where he got it from. He doesn’t remember if his mother said it or anything like that. The other thing is he’ll sometimes say that it, like I said, it’s a nonsense prize. You win it. It’s nothing. But sometimes he’ll say that it’s also used maybe to politely infer that someone’s telling a big whopper or a lie. So if they say a big lie, then he’ll say, oh, that’s a crocheted gadodi.
Oh, that is wonderful.
And what is your family’s heritage?
We are Jewish.
So he grew up speaking Yiddish.
That doesn’t sound Yiddish, though.
Did he spend time overseas?
He did serve in World War II, and he was in Germany.
Interesting.
G’dote, g’dote.
Well, the first part we can dispense with crochet, meaning using the needles to—
Yeah.
You might make a hat or a rug or an afghan or something, right?
Right.
Yeah, and I think there might be a key there, too, because there are lots of other crocheted items that are given as sort of booby prizes.
Oh, really?
Yeah, like you win the crocheted bicycle, you win the crocheted tub, you win the crocheted pot.
I like the crocheted bathtub. That’s my favorite.
So the whole idea is that you’re getting a prize that’s completely useless.
Yeah, yeah.
But somebody spent a lot of time on it because they crocheted it.
Exactly. Sort of like a submarine with screen doors, but not exactly.
But it’s more of a little trinket.
It’s a booby prize. That’s the best way to put it.
So it’s not really a prize.
Right.
It’s not a prize.
Exactly.
It’s silly.
But gadoe-y.
For some reason, everybody in our family wants to win one.
Gosh.
I mean.
But the gadoe-y part, that’s the mystery.
Yeah.
I’ve got nothing.
I’ve got nothing, Martha.
I’ve got nothing.
I mean, all I’m thinking of is the French word for gift, you know.
Cadeau.
Yeah.
That’s possible.
Crochet.
Crochet cadeau.
And with a little bit of corruption over the years could become gadoe-y.
Yeah.
Possible.
But, you know, it could just as well be thingamabob.
Yeah, it might be doohickey or it might be just a kind of generic thing play sound, like a generic pronoun for the thing unnameable.
It’s got a nice sound.
It does, doesn’t it?
Crochet gdody.
Crochet gdody, yeah.
It’s almost musical, like a little riff, a little stinger in music.
Yeah.
Just that one little mark.
Yeah.
Well, we have a lot of fun with it, so hopefully somebody else could win.
Well, here’s what we’ll do for you, Lauren.
We’ll find out.
We’ll definitely find out.
People will email us and call if they know this term.
Or maybe somebody will send us a crocheted gadoti.
Maybe it’s an actual thing.
And then we’ll know what it is.
Yeah.
Yeah, we’ll post a picture on Facebook.
Sounds good.
We don’t want to know where to wear it on our bodies.
Maybe it doesn’t go on your body.
But Lauren, we’ll put the word out to see if people know what a crocheted gadoti is.
And if we find out, we’ll tell you.
All right?
All right.
Sounds good.
Thank you.
Give our best to your grandpa, all right?
I will.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
If you know what a crocheted gadodi is, we don’t know how to spell it.
Just listen to it.
It’s gadodi.
Maybe D’s, maybe T’s.
If you know what a crocheted gadodi is, give us a call, 877-929-9673.
Email us, words@waywordradio.org.
