What do you call the cardboard roll inside a roll of toilet paper? Many families have their own name for it, including der der and oh-ah, oh-ah. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Der Der, Oh-Ah”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
The other day I was getting down to the end of a roll of toilet paper at home, and I had a big surprise.
Grant, you’re looking at me like…
Yes, wondering where you’re going.
This is relevant to a show about language.
The cat came in and started batting at the toilet paper.
No, no, no, that often happens.
But no, what happened was I got down to the end and there was no tube.
Oh, interesting.
Have you ever?
I had no idea.
I have seen that in institutional roles, though.
Yeah, in institutional roles, but now for domestic use.
Right.
Scott Tissue is starting to sell what they call tube-free toilet paper.
That means a lot of craft projects are going to be unfinished.
Well, yes, and you’re zeroing in on what I was going to talk about, because this is a show about language.
And I was going to talk about all the different names for that cardboard roll that’s in the middle of the toilet paper.
Right, or the paper towel roll.
Sometimes it’s the same.
Yeah, we’ve talked about this on the show before.
And the one that stuck with me was the doo-doo-doo.
Because what do you do?
You put it up to your face and you make a trumpet noise, right?
Exactly.
Yeah, and we’ve heard from lots of listeners who call them oa-oas or dur-durs or tur-ters.
And what I was thinking about is the fact that since we aired that show, which was years and years ago, we have lots more listeners.
And I’ll bet we can hear lots more names for that role that may go missing.
I mean, we may have to have a requiem for a der-der.
Oh, because this is a family word.
It tends to be the thing where you come up with your own in-house slang for it.
Right.
And it often gets named for how it’s used.
You know, little kids pick that up and they make a kazoo out of it.
Right.
But tissue paper on the end.
But what do you call it?
Email words@waywordradio.org.
Talk to us on Facebook.
We have a really great Facebook group there.
Or tell us everything on Twitter @wayword.
