Very Local Slang ... or Is It Jargon?

[chomiji]

Does your family (or group of friends, for that matter) have words or terminology that are unique to you? I mean, when you say xword, you all know what's meant, but anyone else is likely to go "Huh?"

For instance: this is the humble yet soothingly tasty sweet steamed rice cake, which the Intarwebs say is called something like pak tong kou (attempts at rendering the Chinese into English vary):

(Photo from Wikimedia)

It's commonly found at restaurants that serve dim sum.

However, among our family and my friend Kat's family (who are the folks with whom we usually do dim sum), this is known as square meal.

Yes. Square. I know that the picture shows a triangular cake. But the first time we had them, they were cut in squares. And someone called them "square meal" in reference to what poor Milo is served in The Phantom Tollbooth when he's asked what he wants for dinner, and unwisely, he recalls an expression of his mom's, and says "I think we should have a square meal." And he's served a platter of squares. Which don't taste like much, unlike steamed rice cakes, which are nice.

And the name stuck.

So: Do you have any interesting alternative terminology in your life? Please tell!

Comments

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

My family doesn't have words so much as pathological bad grammar used for humor. Most of this comes from my stepdad, which he picked up from my baby brother because he thinks that toddler-speak is hilarious. The most common example is the phrase "another one (insert noun here)" as opposed to "another (noun)". For example, "get me another one piece of cake". Another is "already again" - "Already again, another delicious meal".

Oh, and the one word we have is "remose" - it's a combination of "remorse" and "remote". I think our friend Victoria invented it in regard to her own mood, but now it's mostly used to describe entertainment ("this movie is too remose").

family words

[chomiji]

Hee, remose - that's useful! Those depressing, atmospheric kind of movies made in Sweden and so forth, right? Those would be remose.

Re: family words

[bad-mushroom.livejournal.com]

Precisely :)