Nords in Other Words

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Ashley from Berea, Kentucky.

I’ve really been looking forward to talking with you all about a word that my dad says. I’m actually calling on behalf of my whole family.

Wow.

As far as we know, no one else says this word. We’ve never heard anyone else say it.

So the story is that when my sister and I were small, probably like early elementary age, around the dinner table one night, my sister said to my mom and dad, what does the word Nords mean? And they said to her, I don’t know, what is that word? And she replied and said, but dad, you say that word all the time. And so apparently it took them back and forth. But eventually they realized that it was true. My dad often says this word, it’s Nords, N-O-R-D-S. And he uses it as a contraction for in other words. So Nords, N-O-R-D-S, as a contraction for in other words.

What did he say? Well, the story is that he had no idea that he used it. He wasn’t aware of it at all until my little sister, when she was so young, pointed it out. And then once she did point it out, he became aware of it, but he’s just continued using it in his language regularly.

And it just kind of, to me, one of the things that stands out about it is that it flows so naturally in his conversation. And it makes so much sense in his sentence construction that people don’t notice that he’s saying a word that’s unfamiliar or maybe an unknown word. Because the way he’s using it makes so much sense.

Can you give us an example in a sentence?

Sure.

The entrance to the trail was hidden. Nords, you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t know it was there. Nords, I love it. I love it. Give us another one.

Okay.

So another one is, she lives in the next town over. Nords, it’s not too far of a drive. I don’t think I say in other words that often, but he seems to be shoving it in there everywhere he can. He doesn’t. So I don’t, yeah, so it is kind of a sentence structure that he often uses where he’s putting things in other words. He’s restating something to clarify his meaning.

Yeah.

Well, so Nords, N-O-R-D-S. So, Ashley, I have never seen Nords as a contraction of in other words.

Oh, my goodness.

Nor have I.

Oh, I love it. It reminds me of some other words, though, because there’s a tradition of condensing, contracting words in English in this way, though. So it conforms to, as they put it, the morphology of English.

So we contract a lot of words in English, usually involving the copula, which is the verb to be, and negation. So words like isn’t, is not, becomes isn’t, or wasn’t, was not, becomes wasn’t. But we also do it with words like ordinary becomes ornery, you know, spelled O-R-N-E-R-Y, ornery, a good country word, you know. We talk about an ornery mule, you know, a very, very severed mule. Or goodbye comes from God be with ye. So these are very similar to the way that your father has fashioned nords. In other words, it becomes nords.

So it’s just like a condensing contracting down without apostrophes into a shorter form. And it does the same job of the longer form.

Something tells me he has a lot more of these.

Yeah, I suspect a man from North Carolina with a word like that has got a lot of little linguistic charm in his idiolect.

He does. He does.

Well, thanks for giving us a chance to talk about it. And thanks for the show. We sure do enjoy it.

Yay.

Okay.

All right. Take care now. Give everybody our best.

Bye-bye.

Okay. Take care. Bye.

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