Puckeroo

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Kelly from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Hi, Kelly. Welcome to the show.

Thanks.

What’s going on?

I have a question about a phrase I’ve long considered a family heirloom. I am not a native of Pittsburgh. This phrase is used by my family in central Pennsylvania to refer to an undiagnosed and not serious illness. It is the nun puckeroo.

The nun puckeroo. That sounds ominous.

I know, but it isn’t. You’re not feeling well and somebody says, what’s up with you? And you’re like, I don’t know, I’ve got the nun puckeroo.

Yeah, my mom would always use it with another kind of crazy phrase. So I might say, you know, how is so-and-so doing? And she’d say, well, she’s sick in bed with her feet hanging out the window. And I would say, oh, what seems to be the problem? And she’d say, she’s got the nun puckeroo, but she’ll be okay in a few days. So it’s sympathetic and yet, you know, acknowledging that you don’t feel good. And so, yeah.

So wait, was she really lying in bed with her feet hanging out the window? Or is that figurative?

That’s figurative. And I don’t know where that comes from, honestly. But those two phrases are often used together. But now in my generation, we use it all the time. And it sounds like you have a certain pride in this family heirloom.

Yeah, it’s kind of funny. I’ve never heard anybody else use it, but my siblings love it. And, in fact, in a text message last week, one of my brothers, who is a medical doctor, said, I’m at home today with Declan. He has the numpuckaroo. Last night he threw up at his brother’s birthday party. So it covers a lot of ground, but it isn’t serious. We wouldn’t use it for anything like, you know, a clearly diagnosed illness.

Huh. How interesting. You know, I’ve never heard nun puckeroo, per se, but the Dictionary of American Regional English has, they did a survey of all these different features of different dialects. And one of the questions that they asked people was about joking names that people make up for imaginary diseases, like what you’re talking about. And there are a couple of similar terms. One is rum puckaroo. They found one instance of rum puckaroo.

So just one, that was in Rhode Island, right?

Yeah, in Rhode Island.

Wow. And then there was another one, just non-puck, N-O-N-E hyphen puck in Delaware. But not very common and not exactly what you’re talking about. So with you and those two results, that’s just three attestations to similar terms that we know about. And none of them are identical to each other.

That’s great. This has been around for probably five generations for my family.

Five generations. That’s great.

Yeah.

Yeah. So we’re keeping it alive, hoping other people will embrace it. Maybe it’ll go viral. No pun intended.

Right. I like it, having the nun puckaroo. It’s better than some of these other examples in the Dictionary of American Regional English, like he’s got the sky BTs of the blowhole.

I don’t know. I kind of like that one.

Yeah, there are a whole lot of them, but I like that nun puckaroo. It’s like, you don’t feel so good, but you can’t really put your finger on it, it sounds like.

Right, and it’s very sympathetic. It’s like, oh, poor you.

Oh, okay. It’s got a sympathetic aspect. Kelly, if we hear from other listeners about their use of similar terms, we’ll let you know, all right?

Terrific. Thanks a lot.

Thank you. I appreciate the show. It’s wonderful.

Oh, thank you, Kelly. Bye-bye.

We do know that in your house, there’s family words that you think only you say, but we’re pretty sure if you share with us, we can find other people who say them, too.

877-929-9673.