After our conversation about families’ nicknames for household appliances, Luke in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, tells the story of a gesture that evolved in his own family to indicate it’s snack time. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Gesture for Snack Time”
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. We’ve talked, of course, many times on the show about family words.
And Luke McNeil from Shutesbury, Massachusetts, wrote to us about a family gesture, a gesture that’s evolved in his family. He said, I realized the other day that our family coined a special gesture. My mom or one of us three kids would hold up a hand and wiggle four fingers. That would mean how about I get us all some little paper Dixie cups with chocolate chips?
What? That’s so specific.
It is, right?
He says, normally this would be after dinner when we were watching TV or a movie and wanted a snack. I suspect it started with one of us going to get some chocolate chips, and the next thing you know, the rest of us wanted some too.
We got in the practice of asking the others if they wanted any and counting on our fingers. Then we slowly drop the verbal question and it most would say anyone after wiggling four fingers. And now they just wiggle four fingers.
And I thought that was so fascinating. You know, we talk about the evolution of language on the show, the evolution of words. And they had the evolution of a gesture right there in their own home. Right there in their family.
Oh, that’s so nice.
I love that.
Yeah.
I think if I try that in my home, nobody will know what I mean, though. I need the whole backstory.
Yes, yes. You need the etymology of those wiggling four fingers. But, you know, that got me to thinking, do I have any family gestures? And I couldn’t think of any, but you know what? I bet our listeners do.
We have one in our house.
Do you?
Yes. When my son was very young, he decided to put a chart on the wall of all the times that somebody made a joke that was really good. And so there was a column for me and his mama and for him. And he would put a pencil mark every time you made a joke that he thought was particularly good.
Now it’s just an air gesture where you make like a little mark in the air as if you’re putting a notation on this invisible chart that somebody made a good joke.
Oh, that’s adorable.
Yeah, little five-year-old Guthrie thought he was the good adjudicator on comedy.
Oh, that’s wonderful.
We would love to hear about your family gestures. It’s a form of communication, and we talk about that here on the show, 877-929-9673.
And make them polite, please, or we can’t talk about them on the air. Or tell us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
