Tee-Ella-Berta

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Cynthia from San Diego.

Hi, Cynthia. Welcome to the show.

What’s going on?

Thank you.

I have a word that has been used by my grandmother, and she’s from northeastern Missouri.

And she always would say to us whenever we were getting dressed to go outside or do anything outside, she’d say, well, you better take your jacket or you’re going to freeze your T.L. Alberta.

And we just looked at her and thought, oh, Grandma.

But T-E-L-A-B-E-R-T-A is a word that I find myself using now as I’ve gotten older with my kids.

And anyway, I’m just wondering, where did it come from?

And my dear sweet husband said, you know, you can look that up online.

And I said, no, I’m going to call A Way with Words and see what they have to say.

So T-E-L-A-B-E-R-T-A, am I saying it correctly?

Yeah, exactly.

How would you spell that if you had to put that on paper?

I have tried to write it before, and I just put T, and then I think T-E-E-Dash-E-L-L-A-B-E-R-T-A, just really sounding it out, you know.

Yeah, that’s what I would do.

And what is your Tia Liberta?

You said you would freeze it.

What is it?

I think it’s your derriere.

I think that’s how she meant it to be, but it was always very playful.

But what’s interesting is her two daughters, my mom and her sister, never said it.

So I don’t think it was something that they liked, or it must be really old-fashioned or something.

I can’t honestly say I’ve heard anybody else say it.

Have you ever heard any?

No, never have.

And it doesn’t come up in any of the standard reference works either.

No.

There’s some slightly similar ones in the Dictionary of American Regional English.

These are T-Heine and T-Heine-Boo.

T-Heine-Boo.

And there’s one more with a T-something else.

T-Hinder.

T-Hinder, yeah.

Yeah, you’re going to freeze your T-Hinder off.

But there also, I might be kind of misestimating here, but there might be several hundred words for the thing that you sit on.

And actually, in the Dictionary of American Regional English, when they put it together, one of the questions that field workers asked was basically, what’s a funny name for the thing that you sit upon?

And we’re not talking chair, right?

No, they mean on your behind, your bum, your bottom, your posterior.

Your TL Alberta.

Yeah, your BTM is one that I thought was amusing.

BTM?

Yeah, so it’s kind of a fake acronym of bottom, BTM.

See, I wonder where the T comes in, though.

I mean, wonder why it would start with a T.

Good question.

I don’t know.

But the nice thing about this radio show, Cynthia, is that we have so many listeners that if there is even one small pocket of people in North America who use this term, we’re probably going to hear from them.

I would love that.

No promises, though.

If you do, how will I know?

I’d like to know if anyone else has a grandmother who’s ever said it.

We’ll talk about it on the show.

We’ll put it on social media.

It’ll show up on all the usual channels, all right?

Oh, that’s the great news.

So it’s actually just the bottom, like I suspected.

I thought maybe it was your whole area of your body counting top and bottom, and T.L. Alberta maybe was a reference to T and A, not to get vulgar.

Maybe.

I’m looking at this thinking it could maybe be like an exaggerated form of TLB something, but I can’t think of what TLB would stand for.

Yeah, tomato, lettuce, and bacon.

I have no idea.

Well, we’re going to find out.

Our listeners are going to get off their TLBertas and give us a call, I hope.

Oh, wow, great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Cynthia.

Bye-bye.

Okay, so keep listening, all right?

I sure will.

Thanks.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you know what T. Elaberta is, I mean, we know what it is, but if you use it or someone you know has used it, if you’ve got a clue about it, clue us in, too.

Hit us with a clue by for it, 877-929-9673, or send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.