Many Names for Flabby Arms

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

My name is Caitlin Colbertson and I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.

Welcome to the show, Caitlin.

Dallas is one of our favorite towns.

We’ve had so many good shows there when we’ve we’ve hit the road.

But Well, as I’m entering my seventh decade, my body is betraying me.

And one of the ways it’s doing it is I’m getting that old lady arm flap underneath your arms.

Oh no.

And when I refer to it to my friends, I call them flying Betty’s.

And everybody looks at me like I’m nuts.

But my whole life, the old women in my life, born in the eighteen nineties, they all called their underarm extra skin flying beddies.

But I went and looked it up on the internet and no I couldn’t find it anywhere.

So what are flying beddies?

Where did that come from?

Well well hold on a second, Caitlin.

Let’s get to the bottom of this.

So you’re talking how many women are we talking about who use this term in your in your world?

A dozen, two dozen?

Yeah.

Pretty much all over Texas.

But all only your family, not your friends or your coworkers.

Oh, friends and coworkers are too young to use things like that.

They’ll they’ll keep you energetic.

Yeah.

And and I do, but they all look at me like I’m crazy and then they give me that what is she saying?

Let’s not listen to this.

I gotta tell you, Caitlin, as somebody who whose body is betraying him because of age as well.

I’ve got I’ve got flying billies we might call them on the way.

So Oh excellent.

I love that Yeah, so Caitlin you’re, talking about you’re standing there in a sleeveless dress and it’s the part that keeps waving even after you stop, right?

Correct.

Now I have heard them called flying bats.

Yeah, yeah.

Batwings.

But never baddies.

Yeah, bat wings they’re sometimes called.

Bat wings.

That’s it.

Yeah.

I’m actually more familiar with the term hello betties.

You know, that the same idea that you’re like waving to Betty over there and you and it just keeps waving.

Well Martha, I think the term is as hi Betty’s, not hello Betty’s, right?

Oh, I’ve heard both.

Oh and and and hello Helens.

But I’m wondering if high Betty and Flying Betty’s those sound so much alike.

I wonder if there’s some kind of bleed in from one into the other.

Well I imagine there is a connection there.

And the whole idea of them being sort of like wings, you know, I’ve heard some people call them flying squirrels.

Oh my bing or bingo wings, you know, you’re sitting there playing bingo and you get bingo and you raise your hand and you’re waving it and again I think that’s more common in the UK.

But Caitlin, you’ll be interested to know that there are lots of expressions like this all around the world.

I I love the German one.

Winker Arma, which which is waving arm.

Yeah.

And Vinker Arma.

Okay, I’m gonna have to try and memorize that one.

Yeah, yeah.

E A R M E and then in Brazil you talk about Chaosin use, which are little goodbyes.

Oh and there’s also a Chinese term that translates as bye-bye meat.

That doesn’t matter.

Oh, that’s the bat.

Well, the Swedish one is Yerhang, which means pike hang, P-I-K-E, because they look kind of like the soft underbelly of the northern pike fish.

So the pike hang.

Golly gee, willy whiffers.

That’s a lot of crazy.

Caitlin, do you know who has the most of these?

The Australians.

The Australians seem to believe the English is meant to be embellished with a lot of vigor and they go for it.

And so there’s a book of Australian slang by the journalist and author Kel Richards, and he has I think fifteen terms for this from Australia, including Auntie Arms, the Nanas, the Tuck Shop, Lady Arms.

The Tuck Shop is a a shop that sells sweets and things to school kids, goodbye muscles, piano arms, reverse biceps, which I really love, and so does he.

Oh, that’s nice.

The wobblies, the by nows, the ta flaps, and then this one, the widow’s curtains.

Oh.

The widow’s what?

Curtains.

The widow’s curtains.

Ooh.

That’s cool.

That one’s got some some spirit to it, I think.

So Caitlin, you’re not alone in this.

And I’m surprised this is only just now a problem for you.

I remember taking a salsa class in my thirties and you know, in a in a sleeveless dress and I looked up at my arms in the mirror and it was like, oh no.

But I Caitlyn I gotta say you’re good natured laughing about this is just the right way to handle it, I think.

Yeah, and I’m a crazy old woman.

And I raced bicycles for fi fifteen years and then when I turned forty I got bored and took up skydiving.

So I’ve always been athletic and slimmer, but now as I’m aging, finally at seventy, I’m starting to flap.

Yeah.

I don’t happen to us all.

Even those of us who don’t have that amazing lifestyle, what a lifestyle that is, road racing and skydaving.

Oh, it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

You can do it naked too, by the way.

Caitlin, thank you so much for your wonderful call.

Call us again sometime.

All right.

Okay.

Thank you so much for enlightening me.

Yeah, sure.

Bye bye.

Are you waving?

I’m waving.

I’m waving.

I’m I’m waving.

My buddies are flying.

Well, you know what?

I bet there are even more terms out there floating around.

We’d love to hear about them.

If you have a different term for those flabby upper arms, give us a call or call about any aspect of language, 877-929-9673.