What's your favourite made up word?

[ACS]

Tiddly bods - to go to bed as in; off to tiddly bods

 

[Hilldodger]

Mine is mardi spam cob

Which around these parts means a not very nice sarnie/lunch.

 

[Sam the Eagle]

the remote control at ours is called 'la zapette' (in French, of course)

 

[WeeE]

puggy

OK, it's not exactly made-up but it keeps reinventing itself for new occasions , definitely in the west of Scotland, don't know where else.

Puggy = monkey
(puggle or pochle or pauchle = trick, nick, or nick by trickery; to cheat a bit. The verb hasn't really changed)

A bit later, puggy = organ-grinder's monkey
(for taking money; when my dad was a child)

A bit later, puggy = one-armed bandit (when I was a child)
(machine for taking money and pretending it might give you some back)

A bit later, puggy = bank machine for giving you your own money.

 

[Bill Gates]

Numpty.

You can call someone a numpty and they won't be as offended as much as if you called them any of the following: - idiot, thicko, moron & various other swear words.

Saying the word Numpty has a sort of reasonance, which reduces the harshness of the meaning.

 

[Arch]

You all need to get in touch with these people...

http://www.englishproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=242&Itemid=154

My Mum got the book of kitchen table lingo for Christmas last year...

Annoyingly I can't think of a single one of ours just now!

 

[albal]

glubs> my brother called gloves in his early years & i copied him!!!!!!

 

[bicyclebelle]

neaput... as in peanut

Mmmmm chocolate covered neaputs!

 

[WeeE]

Numpty.

You can call someone a numpty and they won't be as offended as much as if you called them any of the following: - idiot, thicko, moron & various other swear words.

Saying the word Numpty has a sort of reasonance, which reduces the harshness of the meaning.

Funny how some words specific to a region suddenly go national (or even international). Numpty seems to have kept its meaning.

"mingin'" - a particular kind of smelly (literal & metaphorical) seemed to just beome a word for general disapproval when it became a fashionable word a while ago.

And "manky" (dirty, again in a particular way) seemed to just mean generally not nice, when it suddenly started being a hip kind of word.

(My pet hates: Americans say "on the fly" meaning "on the wing" instead "surreptitious" - and British kids seem to have picked that up. Next they'll start saying "pissed" instead of "pissed off" for angry.)

 

[Bay Runner]

Funny how some words specific to a region suddenly go national (or even international). Numpty seems to have kept its meaning.

"mingin'" - a particular kind of smelly (literal & metaphorical) seemed to just beome a word for general disapproval when it became a fashionable word a while ago.

And "manky" (dirty, again in a particular way) seemed to just mean generally not nice, when it suddenly started being a hip kind of word.

(My pet hates: Americans say "on the fly" meaning "on the wing" instead "surreptitious" - and British kids seem to have picked that up. Next they'll start saying "pissed" instead of "pissed off" for angry.)

I seem to remember these words being used in the Royal Navy back in the seventies, manky was used in the same context.

Mingin had two meanings, as you described and it also ment drunk!

 

[WeeE]

Numpty (stupid, but unvolves other qualities as well) and mingin, manky (and mawkit and clarty/clatty - these are all just everyday words in general use for at least a few generations over large areas of Scotland (my gran used them, and she was born almost a century ago).

I've spent a fair bit of time looking at old local records, and the insults in old town-council and court records are very entertaining. Numpty isn't one of the insults I've come across pre-20th century, though, so maybe that is newish. It was great favourite of my dad's as far as I can remember back - early 60s, anyway.

 

[Dayvo]

Not a word, but a comment rolled into one word:

Yaravvinalarf