household phrases

[42itous]

Do you have a word or phrase that your family or friends understand but a stranger wouldn't?

I came across this quotation: "I had a friend who used to say 'I’m on the rollerskates' to mean her period, as a reference to those daft Tampax ads where the actress skated around in white jeans."

In my family, we refer to the "as-you," which is the place you put things when they're on their way somewhere but you're not going to bother bringing them there now. I.e. Dad puts newspaper clippings at the bottom of the stairs, and the next time someone goes up, they bring the newspaper clippings up to his desk. Or we put mail in the as-you by the front door.

majordomo and I were given a Santoku knife for our wedding. We got married at the height of the Sudoku puzzle craze. We call it the Sudoku knife.

I use "triffid" in place of "trivet." I actually have trouble saying the proper word. Luckily, it's easy for people not of my immediate family to tell what I mean from context.

Comments

Blue EIT

[baronet.livejournal.com]

I've picked up the word EIT which means "the universe won't rearrange itself for you" roughly. We've been using it a lot recently when vorpalkitten wants something impossible, like for us to change what happened 5 minutes ago. We actually say "My people have a word for this. That word is EIT." We got it our friends from TEP, where it meant either "ha, ha, I thwart you" or "learn to live with disappointment" (which is the version we usually use). I'm told that its origins come from the Engineer In Training Test, abbreviated EITT, but I don't know that story.

We also use the phrase "I'm blue" to refer to the state where I'm mostly ready to go, but it looks like other people aren't, so I'm going to continue what I'm doing. That way we can avoid the problem where two people are both waiting for the other to finish what they are doing. It comes from a story that dpolicar told where he wished that people could indict the hanging-out-while-waiting-for-everyone-to-be-ready state casually and continuously, say by glowing blue.

Re: Blue EIT

[ceo]

EIT is in widespread use in our crowd and other circles with a strong MIT influence. Etymology here.

Re: Blue EIT

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been wanting to use that word but was hesitant because I wanted to make sure I'd be using it appropriately. The etymology (or EITymology, in this case) is bonus.

Re: Blue EIT

[lunacow]

We also use the phrase "I'm blue" to refer to the state where I'm mostly ready to go, but it looks like other people aren't, so I'm going to continue what I'm doing.

My family calls that "lestering". "I'm just lestering" has the same usage you descrie for "I'm blue". We got it from bearsir, who I believe invented it but couldn't remember why that was the word chosen.

I have often wished people had indicator lights for a whole lot of things.