Mother and Daughter Disagree over “Nummy”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Holly from Escondido.

Hello, Holly. How are you?

Good. How are you?

All right. What’s your language question today?

My question is, my mom uses this word a lot, and it drives me crazy because I don’t think it’s a word, and she thinks it is.

With the holidays coming up and lots of good foods, I know it’s going to get used a lot.

So the word is nummy.

It’s one of those words that makes my skin crawl.

But what if the pie tastes good?

Well, there’s so many other words that you could say, so many other good descriptive words besides nummy.

Like what?

Nummy is just one of those words that, I don’t know, like delicious.

Savory.

Yummy.

What about yumptious?

Mouthwater.

It’s almost as bad, but not as bad.

Well, wait, so your mother is talking to you about this delicious pie, and she says it’s nummy, and you just lose your appetite?

So as she’s spooning you the mashed peas, she says, nummy, nummy, nummy, here comes the choo-choo train.

I think maybe that’s why it bogs me because it’s kind of like baby language.

And I can’t, and the whole baby language thing doesn’t work for me.

I wish we could talk to your mom.

Well?

Hi, mom there.

Hi, this is mom.

Hi, mom.

Hi, mom.

All these years I had no idea it bothered her that much.

Really?

I’ve told you.

Okay, here’s the thing.

It probably did start off as baby language.

It probably did start off as baby talk, you know, like you said, with the mashed peas, trying to get someone, a baby, to eat something.

But I think also that it could be something that has to do with the geographical area of the country.

It seems to be something to do with the Midwest and the upper Midwest.

People here use it very commonly.

So is that where you grew up, Mom, in the Midwest?

Yes.

Where exactly?

In Minnesota.

Okay.

Well, my question for you, Holly, is how much evidence do we need to give you that it’s real?

I want some sort of proof, or maybe this is kind of like an intervention to my mom to stop using the word because it’s embarrassing.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

So either we’ve got an intervention from Mom here or, Holly, maybe we can save you thousands of dollars worth of therapy.

Do you think?

Maybe.

Convince me.

Well, would it make you feel better if I could substantiate the meaning of the word and give you a place to actually look it up and see that there are other people that use this word other than myself?

Yeah, because that’s the other thing.

I’ve never heard anyone use it besides you.

Well, Mom, do you have a place that you can find this?

Yeah, Urban Dictionary.

Urban Dictionary.

Oh, no.

The Urban Dictionary?

Oh, no.

Let me just say right away that Urban Dictionary is not a reliable source.

Oh, but 54 people gave it the thumbs up.

Yeah, well, fine.

Okay, but I can give you a better source than that.

Far more reliable.

Oh, excellent.

And one that actually appeared in print.

Okay.

So it’s in the second edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

They have a definition of it, and they define it as adjective, informal, of food, delicious.

Origin, early 20th century, variant of yummy.

Yes, and I am looking at the acronym.

Is it a slang term, or is it an actual legitimate word?

It is a legitimate word, and slang is legitimate.

Otherwise, if slang isn’t legitimate, then my entire career is a mistake.

Well, guys, you know what?

It’s weird because I don’t see it in most American dictionaries, but in the Oxford English Dictionary, there is an entry for it.

It says chiefly North American, and it has all these entries going back to 1923, and here’s one from 1988.

Well, I haven’t been using it that long.

Well, there are all these citations like 1998, the Orange County Register.

Here’s a reference that goes, mm, mm, mm, gosh, what a pleasure.

What am I making nummy noises about?

Why cottage cheese, of course.

Well, and that’s another thing that bothers her is nummy noises.

Oh, like mm, mm, mm?

We’re just, are you guys trying to do some sort of therapy on me?

Is this, you talk to them before, Mom, is this like.

It’s exposure therapy.

It’s like taking people who are afraid of flying up in planes over and over.

What I’m really wondering is she’s planning to come and visit me for Christmas.

And, you know, how is she going to describe the meal that I make her if it’s not nummy?

She’s going to call it scrumptious.

And I have some major anxiety about Christmas time because I know this word is going to rear its ugly head.

No, Mom, just burn the turkey.

The aunts and cousins and grandmas will just be, it’ll be, you know, yeah, maybe I’ll just skip dinner.

You guys, it’s not often that I’m left speechless.

Well, Mom and Holly, I want to thank you for your time today.

I hope we’ve been a little bit of help, at least some laugh therapy, if nothing else.

You know, at least I know it’s a legitimate word now.

And we found a solution.

I’m skipping Christmas dinner.

Either that or mom’s burning the turkey.

Yeah, yeah.

So it’s not nummy.

Oh, man.

All right.

But those leftovers are going to be so nummy.

Oh, my gosh.

Thank you so much for calling today.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Bye.

I don’t have any words like that, Martha.

There are no words.

Well, you know what?

I take that back, and maybe I’ve mentioned this before.

There’s one word that I don’t like to hear.

Moist?

The word S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H pronounced as strength.

Oh, it’s nasty.

That’s just nasty.

People do that all the time.

Athlete or length.

Strength.

There’s a G in that word.

Where’d the G go?

Well, listen to you peeving.

I know.

I have very few peeves.

When they come out, they’re delicious.

They’re nummy.

They’re scrumptious.

Yumptious.

Scrumptious.

Nummy, nummy.

Wow.

Yeah.

Send us your best recipe for nummy food to words@waywordradio.org or give us a call, 1-877-929-WORD, and you can tell Martha where to go for Thanksgiving dinner.