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

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:03 PM -0400 7/18/07, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>Nathan Bierma's Tribune column this week is about Paul Dickson's new
>book, _Family Words: A Dictionary of the Secret Language of Families_:
>...
>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

I remember coining* "co-lover" as a similarly useful expression in
Berkeley in the early 70s (this was before the seven degrees of Kevin
Bacon).

LH

*Is there a verb for coining that doesn't presuppose 'for the first
time'?  I'd expect others to have independently "coined" the same or
a synonymous verb.

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