Terms for Wedgies

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Chris from San Diego.

Hello, Chris.

Hiya, Chris. Welcome to the program.

Thank you.

What can we do for you?

Well, about a month ago, I was out backpacking with some of my friends, and when I cinched my waist belt, I exclaimed, “Wow, that gave me a Murphy.” And they all looked at me kind of strangely, and so I quickly corrected myself, and I said, “Oh, the belt gave me a wedgie.” And so as we’re hiking, this led to some great conversation. And none of them had ever heard of the word Murphy. And so it got me wondering if I had, in fact, made up this word.

And when I got back to San Diego, I did a little bit of informal research, and I asked some of my colleagues and some of my fifth-grade students if they had ever heard of the word Murphy. And a few of them had, and then I called my mom, and she said she learned the word from me when I was about junior high school age. I basically am just curious about the origin of the word and also if there’s a difference between the word wedgie and Murphy.

Oh, it’s a big debate. And a fine distinction, I’m sure. Well, I called my sister. She lives in Paris. And I said, you know, am I making this word up? And she said, no. But a wedgie is something, she said, you give someone, and a Murphy is something that just nature gives to you automatically. That’s what she said. When life gives you Murphys, make lemonade.

What? No, I don’t know. Something. So you were in junior high about what year, about what time?

I would have been in junior high in mid-80s.

Okay, good, good, good, good. That kind of sinks here.

Yeah, because you’re absolutely right. Murphy isn’t something that you made up, and it’s got enough history that it pops up here and there in some of the slang dictionaries. Pamela Monroe mentioned it in her Slang You book from 1990. She got her data from college students. It probably at least dates to the 80s, maybe to the 70s.

Have you ever had a Melvin?

Well, I’m sure I have, and I have heard of this word as well. But again, I don’t know if there’s a difference between all of these.

No, wait a minute. I don’t know if I’ve had a Melvin or not.

Well, there we go. Because the thing is, Melvin is either a wedgie or a Murphy, or it’s another whole thing altogether, which I’ll describe in just a second. I just want to say, for the record, from a dictionary editor’s standpoint, that slang is really loosey-goosey. It tends not to be overly well-defined. That is one of the characteristics of slang. That is part of the reason that it is called slang.

And so some people do believe that a wedgie is something that is done to you where you walk up behind somebody, you jerk the band of the underwear, and just drag it up into the unmentionable parts of the body, into the nether region. You know, it’s very uncomfortable. We’ve seen it a million times in movies and cartoons and television shows, right? But a lot of people, if you look in the data when they’re writing about it on their blogs or their personal letters or even in books and so forth or, you know, movie transcripts and that sort of thing, a lot of times people do use a wedgie as the thing that happens accidentally, too, just when your underwear creeps up the wrong way and it’s not really situated well.

And then a Murphy is kind of the same story. And then there’s the atomic wedgie, which is another whole thing altogether. Yes, my mom, when I was talking to my mom, she said, “Oh, you girls had so many words. There was the major Murphy.”

Oh.

And for short, we just said the Murph.

The Murph, yeah.

The Murph. Well, because it’s uncomfortable. And the nice thing about Murphys and wedgies and so forth is it’s universal, right?

The nice thing?

Well, I’m just saying, like, you can share your misery with other people. So, you know, put a name to your pain and talk about it. And you need an abbreviation for the thing, right? I mean, there are certain kinds of undergarments that you can wear where this doesn’t happen. But, you know, you’re not always so lucky.

But as for the origins of Murphy, it’s deep in the Oregon files, origin unknown.

Don’t say deep in the anything.

I’m just saying, you know, it’s lost in the crevices of time. You’ll never know. We have no idea. But the thing is, there’s an idea, one idea, with no data whatsoever, but just somebody’s supposition is that it is related to an old-fashioned name for Long Johns.

Oh, really?

Oh, it doesn’t have anything to do with pulling down a Murphy bed?

That’s what I thought it was.

I don’t think so.

No? Okay.

I don’t think so.

Okay. So it was a kind of Long Johns. But no, no data whatsoever. It’s like somebody made that up on a weekend after too many beers and so forth.

My fifth graders are really going to enjoy this.

Okay, okay. So you’re a teacher at a school. You have fifth graders.

Oh, very good.

Corrupting young minds.

Yes, yes. I’m very excited for them to hear me on national radio.

As are we. You’ve been a fantastic guest, Chris.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me.

Okay, take care.

Okay, bye.

Well, if you’ve got another name for the Wedgie or the Melvin or the Murphy, give us a call or send us an email, 1-877-929-9673 or words@waywordradio.org.