Heard over Thanksgiving

[Jonathan Lighter]

A lost manuscript, 3" x 5," rediscovered in a jacket worn by a famous
lexicographer way back at Thanksgiving, 2009, reveals the following notes
taken from life, none of terrific interest:

ridonculous: "Don't be ridonculous!"  Thousands and thousands of RGs in
nearly every conceivable spelling.

FIPs: "fucking Illinois people," i.e., Illinoisians, esp. from Chicago, who
seep into neighboring states.  Well attested by Urban Dictionary.

gidget: "I need some kind of gidget for this."  Gadget. So passe' that Urban
Dictionary never heard of it, but obviously still in natural use.  HDAS
1944.  GB claims one from 1933 but date is unverifiable.

Yo ming?:  Synonymous with "Gnome sane?"  A twentysomething AAVE speaker on
the news interrupted his narrative repeatedly with this maximally reduced
phatic novelty, well represented as /(N)joU 'miN/ .

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org