Jase in Austin, Texas, knows that hickey means a “love bite” or “mark left on the skin,” and doo-hickey refers to a small object that the speaker can’t recall the name of, but why would anyone refer to a hickey in the power grid during a power outage across his state. It turns out that hickey used in that last sense is particular to journalist Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune. In printer’s slang, a hickey is a blemish of some sort. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “When a Hickey is a Snafu Rather Than a Blemish”
Hi there, you have A Way with Words.
Hi there, this is Jace from Austin, Texas. How are y’all?
Well, Jace, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?
So there’s this word, hickey, right? And this word normally refers to a little love bite,
Or, you know, a little mark that one might get on one’s neck after an amorous affair.
And I’ve heard this word actually used in another way by someone at church.
She would always say when she couldn’t think of the name for something, she would call it a doohickey.
And that always made me laugh because I thought of, you know, the other meaning of the word.
And I was like, OK, what’s going on here?
And there’s a third part to this puzzle, though.
The other day, I heard someone on the radio talk about a hickey in the power grid in Texas.
Recently, Texas had a snowstorm that knocked out our whole power grid.
And it was almost like they were referring to a hitch in the plan or a hitch in the power grid.
But they used this funny word, hickey.
And so I don’t know.
I’m like, what is going on with this word, y’all?
Y’all got to help me out here.
Of course we can. Absolutely. Do you remember the name of the show that you were listening to where you heard Hickey in relation to Power Grid?
Yes, it was the Texas Tribune, which is an NPR program that airs every day that talks about stuff going on in Texas.
So I’m sure it was somebody from Texas that was using that word. I don’t recall who it was.
I bet it was Ross Ramsey of the Texas Tribune.
Oh, well, there you go. Oh, my gosh. Wow.
And here’s why. He has a penchant for using the word hickey to mean kind of like a dark mark that requires some explaining.
I like that definition.
Just go to the Texas Tribune website and look for Ross Ramsey and the word hickey, and you’ll find a few articles where he’s used the word hickey in that way several times.
Things like an economic hickey on the state or so-and-so who apparently doesn’t think it’s worth
The hickey or they have a hickey now that they have to explain. And he just means it as a spot
That requires explanation. Oh my gosh. Like a mark against it. That is so funny. Well, you know,
Listen, I have an Austin Public Library membership and fortunately that allows me access to the
Oxford English Dictionary. So I did a little research and I saw that do hickey was a combination
Of the word doodad and hickey. And I was like, oh my gosh, that’s funny too, I thought.
Yeah, because hickey didn’t always just mean a love bite or a love mark. It also meant a
Whatchamacallit or a thingamie, just like doodad did. And so there’s kind of a crossover there.
But hickey also doesn’t only mean the thing you get when you’re sucking face.
It also could mean any kind of mark on the skin, like a bruise or a pimple or a boil or just any bump that’s not supposed to be there.
And in the printing business, there’s a couple different kind of hickeys.
It could be little defects or bits of irregular ink on the printing job that are visible but not bad enough that it will spoil the whole print run.
And then a hickey can also be a dingbat or an ornament that you might include in a corner to end a paragraph or end a column.
Oh, my gosh.
That’s too funny.
I have some friends that are printmakers.
I’ll have to ask them if they use that word.
Oh, yeah.
They call it a ton of great language for you.
But printmakers have, since it’s a 500-year-old profession, they have tons of deeply steep lingo.
Oh, my gosh.
And I’m a total nerd for that.
Well, listen, that is so funny.
I’m so happy that y’all tracked down that Texas Piggy thing.
And I didn’t even think to look there, even though I knew exactly what show it was.
So thank y’all so much.
I really do appreciate it.
Yeah, sure.
It was a pleasure to talk to you, Jace.
Yeah, Jace, thanks for calling.
Bye-bye.
Absolutely.
Bye-bye, y’all.
Bye, Jace.
Well, we’d love to hear your stories about a word that really surprised you in a new context where you thought it meant one thing, but now it seems to mean another.
877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
