Our discussion about finding a word that means both nervous but excited prompted several suggestions from listeners. A listener in Melbourne, Australia, contributed another term used in his part of the world: toey. If you’re toey, you’re full of anxious anticipation — an allusion, perhaps, to a horse pawing at the ground. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Toey, an Australianism”
You remember our discussion about being both anxious and nervous at the same time? Yeah, we had an adorable little girl on the show who was asking for a word for that, and we heard from Chris Ball in Melbourne, Australia, who reminded us that in Australia they use the term toey.
And Chris says, when I think of the word, I can feel my toes moving in my shoes and that butterfly sensation coming up through my knees and beyond, all the way to the tummy.
The sort of feeling that comes with your wedding day or starting a new job or your first time down a water slide. Any leap in the dark.
Well, Australia’s got a word for it. They do. Toey. Toey.
So it’s being anxious and excited altogether. Anxious and excited altogether.
And it may have to do with a horse who’s impatient. Right, right.
The hooves are like digging in the dirt.
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