Ghost poop, husband-in-law, and other "family words"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Nathan Bierma's Tribune column this week is about Paul Dickson's new
book, _Family Words: A Dictionary of the Secret Language of Families_:

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0717languagejul17,1,3877205.story
Families seldom set out to coin their own code words and catchphrases,
Dickson says. "They just pop out of the fabric of a family or a small
group of people," he writes in his introduction. "They can't be forced
because they work to fill a gap -- a place where there is no real word
or the real word doesn't work."
Dickson lists as his sources the names of people who shared their
family's words and radio stations on which he has appeared and
collected words from listeners.
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Bierma goes on to list a number of the words and phrases in Dickson's
book. Several are not specific to any single family (though the
families involved might think so), such as "ghost poop" for "foam
peanuts or dustbunnies." Another one is "husband-in-law," defined as
"an ex-wife's new husband." The late George Harrison often referred to
Eric Clapton as his husband-in-law after Clapton married Harrison's
ex-wife Pattie Boyd.

--Ben Zimmer

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