Ocupado

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, Martha and Grant, how are you?

My name is Bridget Jockla. I’m calling from Ishpeming, Michigan.

Nice, nice.

Yes, it’s in the beautiful Upper Peninsula.

So here’s what happened.

I had a Facebook discussion a couple of weeks ago concerning what we say when we are in a public restroom and someone knocks on the door.

Now, I myself say, you know, yes, or I’m in here or just a minute.

But what happened was someone, when I knocked on the door, had said, occupado, which I thought was really bizarre.

And so I put it to a discussion on my Facebook wall, and it turns out that kind of an alarming number of my friends say occupado, and I have no idea where that would have come from.

And they’re not Spanish speakers natively?

Nope, no Spanish speakers, no people of Latin descent.

I have one friend who has been to Portugal, but that’s about all.

Whoa, and was there any common thread, like age or where they’re from or anything like that?

Well, it’s all pretty much geographically and ethnically homogeneous, my friends.

So it was kind of surprising.

A friend of mine suggested that it may come from airline travel, like the little latch on the bathroom door says occupied and or occupado.

But that seems a little pervasive to have that many people have said it.

Well, I know what you’re talking about.

I’ve had this discussion before with people, and it’s kind of crazy, isn’t it, how many people say, I say occupado, and I don’t know why I say it.

I must have picked it up from a TV show or movie, but I think your bilingual idea of not just airplanes, but all these other places in American life for far longer than you might think have had bilingual signs for these basic things like bathrooms and doors and things where Spanish and English might be needed.

Push, pull, right?

Oh, yeah.

I remember that.

Open, closed, that sort of thing.

It rings a bell for me because when I was very young, I remember that you used to leave a plastic card on your seat on the airline.

I don’t know why, but if you went to the restroom, you used one of these plastic cards that said occupado on it as well as occupied.

But one side said occupied and the other side said occupado.

Yeah, or it was on the same thing.

But why? Was it unassigned seating and anybody could go and take your seat if you left it?

I don’t remember. I don’t remember, but you can actually find these cards on eBay.

Oh, really? For sale?

Yes, yes. You know, a little stroll down memory lane, but this was a long time ago.

Bridget, I’ve never heard of those cards.

It’s interesting that we would choose occupado over occupied, because that’s what we would normally say.

But there’s another thing happening here, and I think this may be part of the answer.

We are fascinated with certain foreignisms.

We take certain foreign words, and we just borrow them into English for no good reason.

Like you might say sayonara to somebody when you actually are saying goodbye, and you really don’t want them to come back, right?

Like sayonara, sucker, right?

We’ll say things like entree for pretending to be formal instead of saying enter, right?

When I say danke for thank you because it’s faster when I’m in a hurry.

There we go.

We might say excuse-moi, kind of like Steve Martin saying excuse me, right?

And we say adios for no good reason.

We could just say goodbye, but for some reason we say adios.

And there’s a ton of these in English.

And so maybe this is part of that class of words that we just borrowed.

I think it does one interesting thing that all these other examples do.

It takes a kind of bland experience and adds just a dab of color to it.

A little cayenne pepper.

Yeah, a little sprinkle.

Maybe not that severe, but maybe a little crushed black pepper.

Sriracha.

Yeah, a little sriracha.

Maybe it’s a way to add a little fanciness to an awkward situation.

Yeah, I’m on the toilet.

It’s clear that you knocked on the door and my pants are down.

I never say that.

I say it.

Well, no, that’s what I’m saying.

I’m in here.

If you knock on the door and I’m in there, you can guess some things about my circumstances.

And so you kind of add a little, just a little hilarity, just a touch of laughter, right?

Just me, see.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, who answers with silence?

Well.

Right?

I think that would have a, you know, sort of an ill effect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The break down the door.

Oh, sorry.

I didn’t know you were in there, sir.

I just growl.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, well, a lynx is in there.

You know, the only other thing I can think of is that there was an episode of The Family Guy where the guy says, I think this predates that by at least 20 years.

Well, sure, but I’m wondering if your friends in your Facebook universe are fans of The Family Guy.

Because I can find examples of this in books from the 90s and 80s.

Yeah.

80s and 90s.

Yeah.

So I know it’s at least that old, and I wouldn’t be surprised now that we’ve talked about it on the air that we get calls from people going, oh, I remember using this in the 50s.

Well, I hope you do because I’m so eager to have a solution to this question, and I appreciate you guys giving me an answer.

Some of life’s mysteries are best unanswered, Bridget.

But thank you for the preliminary field work on your Facebook page.

Sounds like you did the right thing.

You had a language question.

You put it out to your people, and you tried to come up with some theories.

Awesome.

I’d love it if you would share some of that with us, and we can post it to our own Facebook page.

Oh, I’d be happy to.

Okay, groovy.

Bridget, we’re going to find out what the community knows about occupado, okay?

And believe us, we will.

So what do you say when you’re in the bathroom and somebody knocks on the door?

Do you just say, occupied, occupado, go away, almost finished, come in?

877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.

Thanks, Bridget.

Thanks, Bridget.

Thank you.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

You too.