A century ago, British social reformer Helen Bosanquet observed that in many families "the very language used takes on a shape of its own which may be hardly intelligible" to those outside the clan:

To the outsider these expressions and turns of thought seem meaningless or silly; and it is for this reason that the family slang or patois, which I believe nearly every family possesses, is so sedulously concealed from the world at large.
(The Family, Macmillan, 1906)

This past year, dedicated word-hoarder Paul Dickson (see The Language of Baseball) uncovered hundreds of such silly expressions in his book Family Words (Marion Street Press, 2007).

How silly? Consider these various family phrases for the tube of cardboard inside a roll of toilet paper: daw-daw, taw taw, doot-do, der der, hoo-hoo, and to-do to-do. (Of course the proper term, if you happen to be in my house, is roo-roo.)

Then there are the family names for those dust balls that gather under furniture: pummies, mung balls, goofa feathers, koodla, slut's fluff, fizziewiggle, smirf, leap jeeps, woozies, and foochacha. In one household, dust balls have been dubbed ghost poop--a phrase reserved by another family for foam packing peanuts (which are known to my family as flogneedorfs).

Still, not all the words and phrases in Dickson's book are silly. Some of the neologisms serve a valuable social function and deserve to move beyond the family. For example:

• Applaudience
  An audience that has come to applaud; specifically, those composed of parents and grandparents at children's piano and dance recitals.


• BarrisLand
  The place one goes when embarrassed, such as under a pillow or behind one's hands.


• Dofer
  Somethings that isn't perfect but will "do for" now. (And fanow, by the way, refers to "anything put away temporarily.")


• Game 6
  A synonym for "disaster"--a reference to the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, lost by the Boston Red Sox after being just one pitch away from victory.


• Menuitis
  Having so many choices that you take forever to make up your mind.


• Ventrilofart
  The act of passing gas and blaming it on somebody else.

Two of my favorite family words and phrases are Dugan (as in "doing a Dugan") and "It was Milk Duds." But to discover just what those expressions mean, you'll have to read Paul Dickson's delightful book.

Does your family have any secret words that you're willing to share with the rest of us? If so, please click on "comments" below.

More Words About Words:

• The Language of Baseball
• Denotations and Connotations
• Homer Simpson's Figures of Speech

Image: Family Words, by Paul Dickson (Marion Street Press, 2007)