Ishpy or ishpi, used for something icky, forbidden, or not to be touched, drew responses from listeners with Scandinavian family backgrounds. Reported family variants include ishie poo, ishta, and ish, especially in Norwegian-American households. Mary Manor remembered her father using ish for something physically unpleasant, smelly, slimy, or revolting, and said hearing it brought him vividly to mind. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Ishpy,” “Ishda,” and “Ishipu” Are Family Variants for Icky or Forbidden Things”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. A few weeks ago, we heard from John Swenson. Do you remember this call, Grant? He was asking about ishpi? Ishpi, yes. Yes. He lives in Connecticut, and his family used this term ishpi to mean something that you don’t want to touch, something icky. Forbidden.
Yeah, that you would tell kids. Ishpi, right. And we speculated that maybe it had Scandinavian origins. And we sure had a lot of response from listeners with Scandinavian origins themselves, who said that they used ishp or a version of ishp.
Sharon Harris phoned to say that her Norwegian grandmother used ishda as a word of disgust. And Warren Rewalt wrote to say that his Norwegian family used the term ishipu. Ishipu. For the same thing.
And Mary Manor, who grew up in a small town in northeastern Ohio, wrote, I hadn’t thought about ish in a long, long time. It’s a word my dad used to indicate that something was undesirable in a physical sense, smelly, slimy, or revolting in some way. But not usually used to describe food.
I remember he almost always smiled when he said it, so I figured he meant it more as a comment than a complaint. Dad passed away 10 years ago, and hearing that word instantly brought him to mind and a smile to my lips. Funny how that happens.
And I have that experience, too. You know, sometimes every once in a while, I’ll hear somebody pronounce the word A-R-E-A as area. Area. Area. Area. And that’s not very common in most parts of the country, but it’s very common in the part of Western Carolina where my dad is from. And anytime I hear the word area, it has the same effect on me.
We’d love to hear more from you about ish or ishp or related words that you have in your family for things that are taboo or shouldn’t be touched. 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org.
