Dan from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is a jogger wants a word to say when coming up behind someone so as not to startle them. Pass on your left? Beep beep? Excuse me? Or is it better to make a non-verbal noise, like shuffling your feet or clapping your hands? In other words, what is the opposite of startling someone with Boo!? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What to Say When Coming Up Behind a Stranger?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Dan Webb and I live in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Hey, Dan, welcome.
Well, thank you.
I would like to point out a word that I think is missing from the English language. You know, we’re all familiar with the word boo, which is a word you use when you want to startle someone. But we don’t have the antonym of boo. We don’t have an opposite word, which is a word you would use to indicate you don’t want to startle someone.
Where I would use that word, I’ll give you a couple brief examples. I’m a runner, and I’ll be running on a trail in the woods, and I’ll be coming up behind someone. And it’s easy to startle someone that way. Sometimes you can say something like passing on your left. But sometimes, you know, sometimes you’re not going to be passing on your left. Anyways, some word that would indicate your presence without startling them.
Right. You need kind of one word that’s an interjection that means, I mean you no harm.
Right. I come in peace.
Yeah. I know what you’re talking about. It’s not just when you’re jogging. Like, as a dude, like when I lived in New York City at night, there’d be women walking on the street alone. I’d always kind of like shuffle my feet so they could hear my feet clattering. Even cross the street before I got to them just so that they wouldn’t be frightened. You know, I’m like 6’2 and a big guy. I just, you never know how somebody’s going to take it when, you know, it’s nighttime and they’re alone, you know.
Good plan to cross the street. But I don’t have a word for that. I don’t have a word where it can say beep beep or whatever it is. Maybe that’s not bad. You really hit the nail on the head there. You know, I’ll do the same thing in the running scenario. I’ll sort of try to like, you know, rustle some leaves or something with my feet to sort of make it less of a surprise when I.
And, you know, someone said to me, well, you could say excuse me, but excuse me has kind of a different meaning. It sounds like you might be saying, excuse me, you know, can I borrow 10 bucks?
Right. Or excuse me, you’re in the way. How dare you?
Right. Yeah. So that doesn’t quite work. I’m thinking of something that they do in some parts of South America when you show up at somebody’s house, you get out of the car and you clap your hands really loudly to announce your presence.
Oh, I like that. What about something like that? I mean, if your hands are busy, when you’re jogging, your arms are swinging to the side and clapping might be out of rhythm. But maybe it’s something like, or would that be too odd of a noise and it’s on its own? A clapping noise in the woods might be creepy.
Well, I guess if it came to be accepted, if people understood that that’s what the clap meant, sure, that might be okay. Maybe in some other languages, maybe they have a solution to this. When you’re in a public bathroom and somebody tries to get in, you say, occupado, even though for some reason, why are you saying the Spanish word for occupy? Nobody really knows, but it’s the easiest word to come out. Why don’t you say the English word? I don’t know, but you say occupado. And you don’t even say it well. You just say occupado.
Well, Dan, the really good thing is that we can crowdsource this question. It’s a really good one. What could you say when you’re coming up behind somebody and you don’t want to startle them? What’s the opposite of boo? Let us know, 877-929-9673.
And, Dan, if we get some really good ones, we’ll be sure to share them on future shows, all right?
Great. Thank you.
