New "lumpkin," "girney"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has _lumpkin_ for an oaf in the year 1901 only.  But today Meredith F. Small has a different idea [http://www.livescience.com/history/071116-hn-baby-monkeys.html]:

  "Nothing makes a person sound more idiotic than the presence of a new baby.

  "Our voices climb quickly into the stratosphere of the human vocal range and our words squeak out in a way that annoys everyone within earshot.

  "We also start to babble senseless, often embarrassing, phrases.
  'Oooooh, sweetums, lumpkin, cutie-cutie' "

  Female macaques seems to make a distinctive sound around macaque babies:
  "Around babies, females also make a call called a girney, a whining sound that apparently goes well with a grunt.

  "Sounding like wheezing, puffing calliopes, females approach the mother or the baby. Although they look rather scary in their excitement, the noises apparently signal, 'I'm no threat. I won’t hurt the baby.' "

  JL


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