A speech pathologist in Greensboro, North Carolina, named Linda reports that when none of her coworkers offered to take up a task, their boss voluntold one of them to do it. A jocular combination of volunteer and told, this slang is often heard in the military. Linda says a friend of hers uses the term swallowship to mean the act of “sharing a meal in fellowship with others.” Linda herself praises students with the term smart attack, as in You just had a smart attack! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “To be Voluntold is to be Volunteered to do Something by Someone Else”
Hi there. You have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Linda Wheatley. I’m calling from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Hi, Linda. Welcome to the show.
Well, there was a thought or a word, a couple words, if I can just share them.
One is voluntold.
The word voluntold.
Oh, yeah.
Yes, yes.
Did you want to tell us more about that?
Well, I didn’t coin it myself, but one of my coworkers did.
Before I retired from the school district, I worked as a speech pathologist.
And my coworker and I, we were at our meeting that we usually have with our principal at the beginning of the week.
And so she was looking for volunteers for bus duty.
I think bus duty or lunch duty, something like that.
So there was a group of us there, teachers there, but nobody volunteered.
So she said, well, you know, so-and-so, then you will do bus duty.
And so my coworker said, oh, you just got voluntold.
I thought that was pretty cool.
That was pretty cool.
You just got voluntold.
All of our military listeners, our people with military service, are all going, huh, huh,
Because that’s incredibly common in the military.
Sometimes it’s just a passing comment from your commanding officer,
But you had better will understand that it is a command that you need to, you know,
Do whatever it is that they just happen to mention in passing.
Absolutely.
Sometimes they pick you for a duty in your off hours, in your free days,
Like a public relations event or something like that.
And you said you had something else that you wanted to bring up?
Yes.
There’s another word, again, I didn’t coin this one, and it’s swallow-ship.
And swallow-ship, that’s when you’re eating your meal, you’re enjoying a meal with someone, friends or family,
And you are fellowshipping as well, so we call that swallow-ship.
Linda, I appreciate the explanation because that was starting to sound really painful when you first said the word.
I was thinking of a ship in a bottle or something.
Ouch.
Yes, that was coined by a friend of ours in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where we used to live.
And then the final one, this is the one that I coined, okay?
Yeah.
All right.
It’s smart attack.
Smart attack.
Have you heard that before?
Smart attack.
Smart attack.
Like, not a heart attack, but a smart attack.
What is that?
Smart attack.
Well, for my students, whenever they got the correct answer or they came up with a really great idea, I would say you just had a smart attack.
And they would just giggle and giggle.
So, yeah.
I was just thinking of that moment when kids get so excited when they know they’re right and they get fidgety in their seats and their hand goes up and they go, oh, oh, oh.
And they just want to tell you.
That’s right.
That’s right.
And I’m saying, you’re right.
You just had a smart attack.
So they were like, yes, Miss Whitney, yes.
That’s a good one.
That’s a really good one.
I can just picture it.
I bet you were a great teacher.
You sound like you’ve got a warm heart and a kind spirit.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
I love my babies.
I really did.
I call them my babies.
Oh, that’s so sweet.
I bet you never had to be voluntold.
Look, often, often I was calling told.
Still, that still happens in my life.
That still happens.
Oh, thank you for sharing these words.
We really appreciate it, Linda.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to share with everyone.
All right.
Take care.
Thanks for listening.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
