By the way, if you want to read about more family words, check out Paul Dickson’s book, Family Words: A Dictionary of the Secret Language of Families. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dictionary of Family Words”
Grant, here’s an interesting tidbit from Paul Dixon’s book, Family Words.
There’s a whole entry on family terms for the tube of cardboard inside a roll of toilet paper.
We didn’t have a word for that, did you?
No, we called that the art project.
Well, anyway, speaking of art projects and toilet paper rolls, it turns out a lot of families have names for that particular little thing, which is kind of weird.
Some families, according to this book, call them a da-da-da-da.
Some people call them a da-da or a der-der or a drit-drit.
And one guy told the author, quote, “It’s a musical instrument, and it is played by putting it to the mouth and uttering its real name, hoo-hoo.”
Well, anyway, get on the horn and give us a hoo-hoo.
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