You heard me. Yet another glossary.
Jawohl, Kendalese is evolving, just like any other chunk of terminology. No, I don't have
quite enough gall to call Kendalese a language.
bubby (n., adj.)
- means "Baby" originally but the connotations include "little", "small", "dear" .. usually used as a term of endearment
checklist life (n.)
- a life without questioning, going for things in the progression one sees
around one, replete with the engagement, the wedding, the sport utility vehicle, the 2.5 children,
and the dog. There are many varieties of checklist life, but that was the most obvious example I could think of.
chicka- (pref.)
Taken from the movie "Nell". chicka is a prefix in my
adaptation of "Nellish", while its function in the movie was
more adjectival. For this reason, I refer to family members
as 'chicka' plus their name/title. Hence: ChickaMa,
ChickaGale, ChickaBrain...
cran conspiracy (n.)
- My salute to cranberries, which if you think about it, are one of the most ubiquitous little round dark red things ever. Most festive holiday dishes feature them - but WHY the heck ever? They're bitter at best and I, for one, can only ingest them if they're mixed with another very sweet fruit ... and only in fruit juice.
Eviduh (n.)
Another Nellism. In Nellish, it means Evildoer. The first life
form to be dubbed by me as an Eviduh was Blue Seven, the
Evillest Kitten of All. And one of the cuter ones. But because, in my mind, absolutes are dangerous and there's the
cliched flipside to every cliched coin, Eviduh has become a term of endearment.
fascist shirt-tucker (n.)
- I think it was Michael Fish who said "There is a certain streak of fascism
in people who are conservatively dressed." and I'm so glad he agrees with me. There seems to be
some behavior that makes people tuck that shirt in, and I don't have it. Heck, I don't even
wear anything that would allow for tucking.
godlike (adj.)
means any number of things, always positive. Never to be used insincerely. Leave that work to 'cool'. Not to be taken
literally-literally.
ja (interj.)
Pronounced "Yah", not "jaw". I include this because of the staggering number of students I've seen who have little to no
idea what this word is, what it means, or how you say it. You don't have to have grown up watching Hogan's Heroes to
know it, or at least that's what I used to think.
jawohl (interj.)
We build to this one. Added onto the 'ja' you have what is pronounced like "Vole." And if you know what a vole is, tell me
and impress me. The English equivalent for "jawohl" is "yes indeed".
manifiasco (n.)
- My Art History 102 class amused me, what with all the new art movements trying so danged hard to say what they were All About. I heard the word 'manifesto' so many times in that class, it was no longer funny. I thought it'd be cute to write such a thing but be constantly changing it, hence the term manifiasco.
martyr material (n.)
-Think guilt, think guilt-tripping people, be they grandmothers or whatever, those who overdo stuff seemingly to make YOU seem so very ungrateful for not appreciating it. I can say this without malice because I have some martyr material in me. Scary.
minivan mafia (n.)
-a brand-spanking-new term, coined in the first week of December 1998! It refers to the very
scary behavior of mother hens in minivans, that frightening clannishness to protect their very marginal
way of life. Must be all they have.
missa (adj.)
In "Nellish", missa means small or little. In Kendalese, it's no different.
presh (adj.)
short for 'precious', intoned in a high, softish voice. Borders on sounding condescending. Never is.
Putt doin'?
A family-evolved way of saying "what are you doing ?" I think I stole it from my mother.
retronaut (n.)
- In the midst of all this lack of originality, clothes carbon copied off the seventies, retro-everything stuff, they send John Glenn back into space. And this is what I call him.
rule (vb., interj.)
Yes. I'm weak. I had this one rub off on me from Beavis and Butthead via my sister. It's also come to serve the purpose
of a word for awe (as an interjection). Almost like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, only you sound dumber.
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