Ish and Ishpee

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, is this Grant and Martha?

It sure is. Who’s this?

Hi, this is John Swenson calling from Danbury, Connecticut.

Hiya, John.

Hi, John. Welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you. I’m glad to be here. Big fan.

I was calling regarding a family word gem that has been kind of a stumper for our family.

I’ve got two older brothers and a younger sister, and when we get together, our parents have both passed on.

We talk about a word called ishpi.

And I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this word before, but it’s a word that all of my family members have used growing up.

And my parents used it with us when we were growing up, I should say.

And then we’ve gone ahead and used it with our children.

But we can’t figure out where it comes from.

I’m not sure I’m spelling it right.

I think it’s I-S-H, either P-Y or P-E-E.

Okay.

If you’re eating something as a child, my mother or father would say, ish-P.

Ish-P.

And you would know not to touch or eat that.

And my sister says it was even followed with a swipe with the finger gently through the mouth to make sure there wasn’t anything in there that was Ish-P.

Now, why wouldn’t they want you to eat it?

Because it wasn’t mealtime or because it was something they shouldn’t have?

Yeah, it was, as my sister says, it was either dirt, marbles, pennies, or something on the floor, a food substance on the floor that couldn’t be eaten.

Ishpee.

My parents were rearing all of us in the 60s.

I often thought it had something to do with not saying the word no to a child in early development, you know, as they’re forming their words and trying to bring the word know, not to repeat that, just use the word ishpi instead of, and they’ll know immediately it has either to do with the mouth or something that’s just not good to put in the mouth.

Boy, I’m racking my brain here, John.

I mean, I’m thinking, well, it’s not really pig Latin.

I mean, the only thing that…

It sounds a little like pig Latin.

Like it could be pish, which is kind of an expression of disgust or contempt, but that’s a little strong.

Maybe turning it into piglet and take some of the strength of the disgust away from it.

Because it reminds me of ixnay in a way.

Well, yeah, yeah, I would think it would be ishpe.

But, John, the only other thing that I can think of is just the term ish, which you hear in Minnesota and Wisconsin, particularly among people of Norwegian or Swedish or Danish extraction.

Ish means just, you know, something really disgusting.

And it comes from terms in those languages that sound like that term and mean, you know, something disgusting.

Ew, that’s ish.

That sounds like it might have some resonance here because my grandmother and grandfather were both from Sweden.

Oh, hello.

Yeah, and they both, well, they raised all of us, I should say, part of the time when we went over when Mom and Dad needed a break.

You know what I mean?

Very interesting.

And we even use it with our dogs, and the dog knows.

I just thought it was interesting.

It’s always been there.

It’s a word gem we laugh about when we get together as a family on holidays and things.

Where is that word?

I said, you know what, I’m going to ask the experts.

These folks might know, you know.

I like Martha’s theory a lot that it might come from Scandinavian languages, but I think we need to throw this out to the rest of our listeners, don’t you?

Definitely.

They’ll definitely let us know.

So if you use Ishpi in your family as a term of, well, it means no, basically, or don’t do that, let us know, 877-929-9673.

That’s Ishpi.

You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Just tell us what you know about the term.

Well, thank you so much, and I appreciate all the great work you do.

Well, taksa mekit.

Thank you very much, sir.

Yeah, great job.

Basagoo.

Whatever.

Okay.

Hey, John.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

That’s awesome.

Nice. A little Swedish there at the end of the call.

I’ve been talking to some Swedish friends lately.

Oh, very good.

Comes back to you.

Ishpi. It sounds like there’s an element of ickiness.

I love the strength that this term has in the family.

If it is a family word, it’s being passed to now, what, the third or fourth generation?

And the dog.

And the dog.

This is great. This is fantastic.

It could be a classic example of a family word that exists only for those people.

But usually we find family words have a larger connection to history, the community, or even whole regional kind of variation.

So let’s find out.

Let us know.

Whatever you know about Ishpee, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.