funkadelic!!, and a collection of other words and phrases I love to say, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2008 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
When I was in high school there was this guy, John Armijo, who had big stretchy lips, white Chiclets for teeth, and a clown smile. He wore his hair ala Vip’s Big Boy, and he talked like a Valley Girl, except masculine.
He made up a word—funkadelic—which he used the way others might say cool.
“Hey, Charles Castillo is having a party this Friday night.”
“Funkadelic, man!!”
And there was the way he said it. Funk-a-DELLL-LICK. Emphasis on the DEL with a stretching out of the L, then a slow transition into LICK. Before long, John’s word became part of the lexicon of our entire group of friends.
But more important, hearing John say funkadelic was the first time it hit me that I love the way some words sound. I like how they form in my lips, how they make my tongue touch the roof of my mouth, and how my voice lingers over certain syllables.
That word—funkadelic—had all sorts of word-love associations in my mind, none of which you might expect. Funkadelic made me think of Helsinki made me think of melanoma made me think of lucidity. Something about the way the mouth and tongue and lips worked together got me going in a ribbon of sound and shape.
I will go out of my way to say certain words and phrases. Take the name of that famous discount clothing store, the one where you have to pore through racks to find designer brands in the right color and size. Ross Dress for Less.
I love that place, will frequent it instead of Marshalls all because I have bonded with the name. Never plain ol’ Ross, but Ross Dress for Less. (I was in there the other day looking at trench coats for a Halloween costume and I noticed an abundance of home furnishings. God forbid there’s a name change on the horizon; it just wouldn’t be the same.)
I realize my love of the way certain words sound must have begun long ago, when my brain was still forming synapses (there’s one I enjoy saying). I think back to words of my youth—Piggly Wiggly, Gilligan, Ellie Mae. I can see the dotted line to funkadelic and why whenever I see one of my co-workers, I go out of my way to say her name. Nellie.
When Dee was little, everything she ate she had to dip into sauce—ketchup, salad dressing, barbeque sauce. This led Jim and me to coin the term dippin’ sauce, which ten years later is still one of my favorite things to say.
“Dippin’ sauce with those artichokes?”
“Yes, please!”
There are words I start out not liking that later grow on me. Gasamat. Once a word enters that special place between my cheek and gums, I tend to use it as much as I possibly can. Gasamat, Gasamat, Gasamat.
The newly coined staycation was a real annoyance when I first heard it this summer, yet lately I notice it’s growing on me. I think even if the price of gas plummets and airline travel becomes incredibly cheap, I will nonetheless take nothing but staycations for the rest of my days.
Webinar is another word I thought was dumb, and yet I seem to be growing fonder of that one by the day. I might even consider hosting a webinar just so I can say it few hundred times. Who know? Maybe I’ll do four webinars in a week and call it a weborama.
Even when I disapprove of the meaning of a word, what it stands for, I can still like the way it sounds. Robocall, for example.
I’ve decided to start a list of words I love to say. It’s kind of anemic (hmmm, I might consider that one) but I plan to add to it over time. (I also considered making a list of words I didn’t like to say but realized those had less to do with the structure and sound of the word itself and more to do with words being over-used and/or not terribly meaningful.)
Feel free to add words for which you hold a special fondness. Together we can celebrate the joy of vocabulary—in all its funkadelic-ness.
Of all the Words I’ve Loved Before…
funkadelic
Helsinki
melanoma
lucidity
Ross Dress for Less
synapses
Piggly Wiggly
Gilligan
Ellie Mae
Nellie
Gasamat
staycation
webinar
dippin’ sauce
sassy (pronounced sas-seh)
gangly
cauliflower (pronounced collie-flower)
billy goat
marigold
robocall
kleptomaniac
Quetzalcoatl
bourgeoisie
Blas (a man’s name)
memento
pimento
my favourite word is and always has been ‘absolutely’. it makes me think of cantaloupe. in fact, i associate most words with other words, but you would think i was crazy if i continued!
LikeLike
Seymour Butts and Toots Freely will appreciate the word my familly made up for passing gas, “Bluedoesplooters.” Don’t ask me how we came up with it. I can’t remember, but we called them that long into my adulthood.
LikeLike
Crazy?? Girlfriend, you’re talking to someone who associates funkadelic with lucidity! Someone who walks around the house singing mares-eat-oats-and-does-eat-oats-and-little-lambs-eat-ivy-a-kid’ll-eat-ivy-too-wouldn’t-you? Or beet-billy-oat-beet-billy-oat-beet-billy-oat-n-goat-beet-billy-oat. 8)
LikeLike
LOL, Bob. And did your family members have made-up words for private parts? Mine did.
LikeLike
In my day groovy was THE word. It has to be one of the dumbest words of all time. But, then again I was too old for funkadelic, which I think is much better. I went through an awesome stage later in life. I mean like totally awesome. Where the heck did I pick that up? I think the culprits were my nieces. My favorite sayings of all time are “Whatever trips your trigger” & “I’m sorry, but I am financially embarrassed”. Those sayings are really groovy, I mean totally awesome. And for some reason I have always called farts pooters. What? Your list of words you’ve loved before are great! I am especially fond of Piggly Wiggly! 🙂 Oh, & I also love the words giggle & snort. D
LikeLike
I feel there´s a poem to be made from that gorgeous list of words…!
LikeLike
Does every family have a pet name for farts? – my youngest named them “bottom sneezes” when she was barely 2. Now we are all way too old for it, but we still snicker “did you bottom sneeze?” when we are only family. And then we think we are SO funny!
As for words, I have had a love affair with them for as long as I can remember. Some favorites:
cameo
curriculum vitae (why say resume when you can spout Latin?)
mellifluous
lichen (I’m likin’ lichen!)
madrigal
azure and saffron
somersault
razzmatazz
gimtrack
confidante
whimsy
and, why not?, from dear Mr. Rogers – speeeedy deliveryman!
LikeLike
Yeah, I think anyone who wrote about Seymour Butts and Toots Freely should have expected this comment thread to include other words for fart 🙂 My mom was just too damn southern formal and called it passing wind. Which I then twisted to describe if it was a breeze, a gust, hurricane force or tornado.
SNAFU – not a word of course, but an acronym that I LOVE to say.
Snickerdoodle – so much fun.
And oh rats I need to run, but I shall *ponder* this further (I like ponder, can you tell?)
Caterwaul. Oooh..love that. ROWR.
LikeLike
SNAFU, that’s a good one. I like ponder. It makes me feel slow and reflective. I say it with an ever-so-slight British accent. 8)
All of yours are good, tpgoddess.
And Bo! I love love love razzmatazz! Such a sassy word.
Azure is soft and graceful.
Really like your list, too.
diddy, we just call farts farts in these parts. Although, as a kid, we had all sorts of ways to say it, cut the cheese being my favorite. 8)
LOL, tpgoddess—love how the kids in your family *enhanced* the polite wind analogy.
Lirone, good idea. Although, if I tried to make a poem at this point, it might be kind of crass.
LikeLike
Fun post, yb. I like synapses and Piggly Wiggly, too. It’s fun to read these comments.
Here are a few I like:
puddlejumper
voluptuous
gnarly
succulent
riffraff
fuzzbuster
labyrinthian
byzantine
montrosity
monsoon
bottom feeder
snarfed
herculean
plutonian
frappe
hushpuppies
Words & phases I have overused over the decades (but were still fun to say):
rocks my world
unbelievable
platonic
funky
you’ve got to be kidding
ghostbuster
here I come to save the day (that means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!)
don’t rock the boat
that’s my mantra
cuckoo for cocoa puffs
oh, goooooodness
gangbusters
cool
LikeLike
No made-up words for private parts. We didn’t talk about them…AT ALL. A nod of the head in that direction was about the closest we came.
LikeLike
Hey, QM, lots of good ones. I really love the word “voluptuous.” A case of sounding like what it means.
It reminds me of a New Year’s Eve when we spent the whole night, it seems, talking about that word (one of our party-goer friends called a woman “voluptuous,” and then the rest of the night was spent debating whether she was or not. It turns out she was quite thin.).
Also, that night, it turned out I think that Mimbresman pronounced the word “volump-tuous”—at least I think was him who did that. Every time I say the word now, I pronounce it with the “m”—ha!
I overuse the words “absolutely!” and “awesome!”—ugh. I even say “awesome” in professional meetings.
Also, I say “goooo-ness” and “gooo-ness gracious”—it’s a baby-ification of “goodness.”
LikeLike
“Volumptuous” reminds me of a made-up word like “heffalump.” Remember heffalump?
That opens up a whole other category of made-up words (Dr. Seuss comes to mind, too). Liz and I make up words all the time. We also walk around singing parts of songs that we add words and phrases to that fit what’s going on in our lives at the time (often involving the 3 cats!)
I hear “absolutely!” and “awesome!” a ton. I don’t use them as much anymore (though I used to say them more). I think there is a generational component to some of these words that become mainstream after a while. I do still say “Cool!” Or “That’s SO cool!” Words from the way, way of my past.
LikeLike
Whew! It’s been a while since I stopped by here! I’ve been quite busy with work and school (no surprise there)! And then just yesterday, I was involved in a 6-car accident. I was car #4. I just went to the chiropractor today, and he said that I have muscle spasms from the whiplash. However, if I’m still in pain, he may have to do an x-ray on me. But for now, I have to come in 3 days a week for treatment. Ugh. I always dread it when he cracks my bones and all. *shudder*
But anyway, I miss you all, redRaviners!! I actually love this post. So, thank you, yb, for posting this! I love to write down my favorite words too. In fact, when reading this entry and all the comments, it’s all musical when I started reading some of the words out loud. Isn’t it great to know how musical languages can be? I’m just even more fascinated as to how and why we’re attached to certain words. One can associate a certain word to a fond memory, something pleasant, etc.. It’s interesting to say the least.
Alright, you’ve inspired me, yb. I’m skipping off to do my own “word art” of favorite words. I’ll post it up soon! 🙂
LikeLike
a~lotus, so sorry to hear about your accident. Please heal well. Odd, because I was just thinking about you yesterday at some point and wondering how you were doing. Looking forward to your word art. It is strange how we get attached to certain words, the way they sound and feel as they roll off the tongue. Glad you were inspired by ybonesy’s post!
LikeLike
QM, yes, I remember “heffalump”—from reading to my daughters and not from my own childhood. I’m kind of stuck on “cool,” too. Some things you just can’t get rid of, even when they go out of style. (Do words really go out of style, though? Probably not.)
a~lotus, so glad to hear that you walked away from that 6-car accident relatively unscathed. While I love getting my bones in alignment, I can’t take the cracking. I remember one acupunturist I used to go to, very competent, would do a few crunching things on my neck and ribs. They always made me feel great, but I just would freak out with worry as I waited for him to finish rocking my neck and make that final crack. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore and ended up going to a chiropractor/healer who doesn’t crack anything. That’s chickenlil’s husband, and I couldn’t be happier to get my frame aligned without that danger of something going amuck in the cracking process.
Anyhow, glad this inspired you to do some word art.
And, yesterday, while at the butcher’s store, a man came in looking for gefeltifish, which reminded me that I used to *always* say that word. If someone told me “Thank You,” I would respond “Gefeltifish.” Doesn’t it sound a bit like “You’re Welcome”?? Not really, but to my ear it did. 8)
LikeLike
yb, your comment about the “gefeltifish” made me giggle. I first heard it when I watched _Rush Hour_, starring Jackie Chan (one of my favorite actors) and for the moment, I forgot the other actor’s name. But anyway, I really like the ticklish sound of it.
And yes, I finished my word art already, but I need to go home, scan it and post it. 🙂
I trust this chiropractor of mine. I had him before when my lower back was killing me. He kinda mixes in the Chinese ointments with the modern stuff. It’s kinda neat, but yeah, the cracking is what I dread every time, but surprisingly, it works. With this car accident, I may have to do 4-8 weeks’ worth of therapy. I’m still so sore… -_-
Maybe that’s why I love languages so much, QM. I love how they roll of my tongue when I pronounce certain words. Sometimes when we learn a new language, we’re parrots. Our intonations and inflexions aren’t always correct, but at least people understand what we’re trying to say in general.
I’m Vietnamese, and I think I’m pretty horrible in it. I have about a 3rd grade level of spoken Vietnamese, so whenever I speak, I feel like I’m talking in fragments like haiku. So it’s very conversational instead of the well-educated, if you know what I mean. But anyway, I’m just glad that I’m polite enough so that other native Vietnamese folks can forgive me in the fact that I was born in America. lol So, they can understand most of what I’m trying to say. Thank goodness, I don’t have to give speeches or write in Vietnamese (since I really can’t do that)!
LikeLike
My “Word [Art] Love”
http://alotus-poetry.livejournal.com/28963.html
Enjoy!
LikeLike
[…] from the Synonym Finder, letters moonlighting as words help to explain Autumn’s 10th Moon; October’s waning splendor; the November Full Moon I […]
LikeLike
gefeltifish
LikeLike
Oh, shoot, I forgot that I added that one already! Oh well, that was fun to say again. 8)
LikeLike
ybonesy, thanks for adding it; I just got to say it again, too. Rolled off the tongue. 8) I’m adding smithereens to my list. I said it yesterday and it reminded me of how much I like it — smithereens.
LikeLike