Judy from Indianapolis, Indiana, remembers her great-aunt Fanny using the expression take a jaybird, meaning take a sponge bath. She explained it as when you wash under your wings and your tail feathers, and maybe polish off your beak. Great-aunt Fanny may have been thinking of the term naked as a jaybird. There are many other terms for these quick cleanups, including Dutch bath, wipe-off, G.I. bath, Marine shower, and Georgia bath. We’ve talked before about another euphemized expression about bathing thatinvolves washing one’s possibles. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Take a Jaybird”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hello.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Judy.
I am calling from Indianapolis.
Hi, Judy.
Welcome to the show.
Mm—
What’s going on?
Aunt Fanny was quite a bit older than I was, an old maiden aunt, who was born, I think, in Covington, Kentucky, and lived their life in Cincinnati.
She was born probably around 1880 or something because she died when she was 96 in 1968.
Anyway, Aunt Fanny would say, we’d be talking, and she said, oh, I’m tired.
And I say, you’re going to take a bath?
No, I’m not going to take a bath.
I’m just going to take a jaybird.
When I asked her what a jaybird was, she said, oh, you know, just kind of when you wash under your wings and your tail feathers, maybe polish off your beak.
I’ve never heard anybody say that, but Benny said it quite often, so I don’t know where she picked it up.
I love that.
That reminds me of a call we had about possibles.
Oh, yeah.
Go wash your possibles.
Have you heard that one?
No, I missed that show.
Yeah, that’s when you say something like wash as far up as possible, and then wash as far down as possible, and then you wash your possibles.
Yeah, I like that too.
But I have not heard anybody say I’m going to take a jaybird.
We’ve had many, many people email us and call us to say that they use the term birdbath itself.
Yeah, I wonder if your aunt combines jaybird, like naked as a jaybird, with birdbath.
Yeah, that was my thought.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
But there are other names for this Dutch bath and wipe off and, oh, I’ve got some naughty ones here I can’t share.
GI bath, although there’s a couple different meanings for that.
Yeah, and I’ve heard marine shower, too.
Often it turns out that people use a term for arrival.
You know, like people in North Florida may say, I’m taking a Georgia bath.
Oh.
Oh, interesting.
You know, it’s like not as good as the real thing.
Yeah, we have a culture of making fun of the state next door, don’t we?
Yeah.
Pretty much everywhere in this country.
Yeah, maybe there they have Ohio baths.
I don’t know.
I don’t know.
I miss her.
She was something.
My old maiden aunt.
Oh, that sounds nice.
That’s so lovely.
Judy, thank you for sharing this memory with us, and call us again sometime when something else comes up.
Well, thank you for having me.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
I love how Judy brought us a story from her family, from her great aunt Fanny, who was born in the 19th century.
We’d love to play Antiques Roadshow with your language.
Your language.
So call us 877-929-9673 or send your stories about language and family lore to words@waywordradio.org.
