A listener named Meagan from Wisconsin uses the term flustrated, combining flustered and frustrated– one of many mashed together words she deems Meaganisms. Though Grant applauds her innovation and creativity, Martha points out that flustrate actually does pop up in English texts as far back as the 18th Century. Dictionaries with entries for flustrate note that it’s usually a jocular term, a conversation could always use more Meaganisms. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Flustrated”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, I am Megan from Green Bay.
Hi, Megan.
Hi, Megan. Welcome to the program.
I am calling about a word that I say that is a combination of two different words.
And the word I always say is frustrated.
And it’s a combination of flustered and frustrated.
Mm—
And it drives my husband crazy.
Why? Why does he mind?
I don’t know.
I think it’s just he’s very good at grammar and English,
And I tend to forget words and mix them up and just not really care as much.
What’s his complaint, though?
Oh, that it’s not really a word, that I’m combining those two words together.
So he said I need to say one or the other.
I can’t combine the two into frustrated like I do.
It frustrates him when I do that.
Is he pretending to be confused or is he genuinely confused?
No, he’s not confused.
So this is a dispute between the two of you?
Well, between him and other people that I work with and hang out with,
They tend to make, they call them Meganisms,
Because I tend to make up sayings and words.
Okay.
I want to give you a whole new perspective before we answer your question.
Megan, you’re an innovator.
You’re forward thinking.
You come up with new ideas.
Exactly.
You’re an inventor.
Right.
That’s my philosophy here.
Well, and Megan, on the other hand, you’re also carrying on a long tradition.
Yep, that’s right.
This word has been around since at least the early 1700s.
Wow.
Hundreds of years.
Yeah.
And so take that information, go back to your husband and your so-called friends and say, in your face.
I might have to mix it up and make it more inventive, though, and say, like, in your ear, you know.
That’s a different thing altogether.
Yes.
Yeah. Now, it isn’t always regarded as standard English.
Right, right.
But you can find it in old texts back in the early 18th century.
And there’s some thought that it might not be a combination of frustrate and fluster,
But from flusterate, which is another word.
Yeah.
I’m all flusterated.
Yeah, which is directly connected to the origin of frustrate.
And they may have the same etymological root, just different paths.
Very interesting.
The word has been used in dialects of English in the UK for centuries.
There’s no harm in it.
As Martha said, the dictionaries do sometimes mark it as jocular,
Which means you’re probably not going to use it if you’re writing a speech for the president.
Right.
But if you’re speaking in meganisms, you’re fine.
Exactly.
I would say I was a jocular meganism person.
Meganisms are the new wave.
Everybody’s doing it.
It’s the new future of the world.
We’re all going to be talking mechanisms in a few years.
That sounds great.
So write your dictionary and spread it around so everyone can talk like you.
Megan, you’re fine with flustrate, okay?
Great.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
Just keep it to informal circumstances and you’d be cool.
All right.
Great.
Thank you for all your help.
All right.
Cheers.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Boy, is her family going to be flustrated.
-oh.
Marriage counselors on the air.
You know, I have to say I ran across the word refudiate the other day.
Yes.
No, I ran across the word repudiate.
Oh, see, you’re already confused about it.
See, I’m already doing it.
I ran across the word repudiate, and I thought, wait, that’s not right.
You know, it’s like teachers who grade too many spelling tests, and then they can’t remember how a word is spelled.
The Palinism, the blend made by Sarah Palin, is surprisingly contagious.
It’s sticky, isn’t it?
It is very sticky.
And no matter what people said about it being hideous and a misrepresentation of the beauty of English or whatever kinds of like long, drawn out complaints they have, it’s actually useful.
And it actually carries meaning.
So I’m not going to endorse it.
But let me just say I can understand if a word like flustrate or refudiate is a little catchy and a little contagious.
And you find yourself coming out of your keyboard like, whoa.
So if a language question has you flustrated, see, it’s great.
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