If you’re the type of person who wants so badly to sit alone on a train that you have strategies for deterring other passengers from taking the seat next to yours, the Irish train system is onto you. Irish Rail’s #GiveUpYourSeat campaign has posters all over trains warning people about frummaging (pretending to rummage through your bag in the seat next to yours) and snoofing (spoof snoozing). This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “#GiveUpYourSeat Campaign”
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.
You know that feeling when you’re on a plane or a train or a bus and other people are boarding, and you’re sitting there and you really, really, really hope the seat next to you doesn’t get taken?
You know that feeling, Grant.
And do you have little strategies or behaviors that you use to keep people off the seat?
I do the same thing they say to defend against some animals. I make myself look big. I put my arms akimbo, kind of like puff up a little bit, sit up straight. And people are like, oh, I don’t want to sit next to that guy. He’s hogging it. That guy. Try to look sweaty.
There are words for those kinds of behaviors.
Oh, there are.
Yes.
What are they?
Well, they’re brand new words, actually.
Oh, okay.
And they are really clever words that are part of a new ad campaign by the Irish rail system. It’s called Give Up Your Seat. And they’ve done this really clever thing where if you’re sitting on a train there, you can look up and there are these beautiful signs and they look like beautiful dictionary entries, one word per sign.
So, for example, here’s one. Frummaging. And it says verb, frummaging. The act of faking a rummage in one’s bag for something that does not exist. Fromagers have also been known to place their bag on the seat beside them so as to deter any potential neighbors.
Oh, that totally is what people… I don’t do that. I know that move.
You don’t fromage?
No. And the thing is, it allows you to avoid eye contact.
Exactly.
There’s that. And then here’s another one. Snoofing.
Snoofing?
You know what snoofing is?
That’s the practice of feigning a dormant state or spoofing a snooze in order to avoid any interaction with other passengers, least of all having to relinquish one’s seat.
I don’t do that one.
Never that one either.
You’ve never snooved.
No, and snoofers, I call them on it because I’m like, oh, he’s sleeping. He won’t mind if I scoot him over.
Well, I just thought this was a brilliant ad campaign for give up your seat.
That’s great, right?
They’ve got a hashtag, give up your seat. And we have Ellen Garrett of Oberlin, Ohio, to thank for calling this to our attention. She just got back from Ireland, and these signs are all over the train cars, and I’ll share some more later in the show.
I bet those hang on.
And they become really negative and pejorative fast.
We’d love to hear from all you fromagers and snoofers out there. Call us 877-929-9673 with your language question or send it to words@waywordradio.org.
