Second Shift Spouse

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mark calling from Chico, California.

Hello, Mark. How you doing?

I’m doing pretty good this morning.

Well, I have what I call a designation frustration.

A designation frustration, okay.

Yes, and it’s looking for a certain word of how to designate a certain person.

My ex-wife has remarried several years ago, and we’re all good friends.

Her new husband is a wonderful guy.

Love them to death.

Love them both to death.

And so it comes up in conversation when we’re hanging out.

What is the designation for your ex-wife’s new husband?

Is there a word for that?

Ooh.

I’ve done a little bit of research,

And the closest thing I found was like in an urban dictionary kind of thing,

A slang kind of thing.

But it is more the opposite sexes.

It’s a designation for your ex-husband’s new wife.

And it’s not a very nice one, but the term is floozy.

Oh, yeah.

Floozy.

And we all share the same sense of humor, so sometimes I’ll introduce Jessie as my floozy.

But I know that’s not the right term, so what I’m looking for is, is there a real term?

Now, Jessie, is that her husband or is that your ex-wife?

That’s her new husband, yeah.

Oh, so you’re interested in this man as a floozy, which has got a double joke to it.

That’s great.

And so you all get along great.

Yeah.

Wow.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

So none of the derogatory ones I was going to suggest work.

Yeah, that’s the word I was looking for.

A floozy is kind of derogatory, but it’s said with a smile, and then it’s kind of an in-joke that we have among us.

I’ll share two, though, that are derogatory if you want them, just in case.

Maybe we can ameliorate them.

What are they?

Well, one is to call the new spouse of your ex the second shift.

Second shift. I got it.

And then the next one is even worse.

It’s to call them Tupperware because they’re getting the leftovers.

Oh!

That’s pretty good, too.

There was some discussion on your Facebook page,

And the one that I recall that someone came up with is also derogatory towards me, I guess.

And that was my replacement.

My replacement.

My replacement.

Oh.

Well.

The latest model, maybe.

Is that derogatory?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Maybe that’s…

It depends on your level of self-esteem, I suppose.

Yes.

Or mine.

Yes.

Yours sounds very healthy.

Yeah.

I was going to say, the fact that you guys have a great relationship, that’s amazing.

It usually doesn’t go that way, Mark.

Yeah.

I don’t have a term for this.

I mean, I don’t have any nice ones.

But, you know, this is the kind of thing, Mark.

We have a giant audience that loves to crack jokes and make puns.

I have no doubt in my mind that they will have some suggestions for you if you’re open to listening to them.

All right.

Yeah, in English or some other language.

Yeah, who knows, right?

Maybe there’s something magical in Chinese that we’re all going to learn.

I don’t know.

Yeah, I just.

All right.

So, Mark, here’s what we’re going to do.

We’re going to throw this out to the listeners.

If you have a name, a nice one, for your ex-wife’s new husband, something other than their given name, let us know, 877-929-9673, or send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.

And Mark, we’ll keep an eye on that and let you know what we find, all right?

Wonderful. Thank you very much.

Yeah, sure.

Say hi to Amy and the new guy.

I shall do so. Bye-bye.

Bye.

So if you have a word for this, what should Mark be calling his ex-wife’s new husband?

877-929-9673, email words@waywordradio.org, or tell us on Twitter at the handle W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.