Who’s The Boss? — Talking Jersey Slang

Bruce Springsteen: DoD News Photo

Recently, I came across a video of comedian Chelsea Handler explaining New Jersey slang to her audience, and, being a Jersey girl by birth, it immediately captured my interest.

It also reminded me that wherever we hail from or live now, there are words that we take for granted but may perplex outsiders — loonie, anyone? In fact, if we understand these terms, we can pass for natives of said location.

Apparently, Ms. Handler moved away from Jersey at a young age, so she had to guess at the meanings of some of the words, but I won’t do the same. For all of you who have ever watched The Sopranos, Jersey Shore or the Real Housewives of New Jersey, here are some words that may have mystified you. In fact, when you take a trip to the City (aka NYC), they may come in handy.

1. The Boss: We’re talking leadership here, but in the world of music. The Boss is the nickname of music icon Bruce Springsteen, the artist behind such hit albums as Born in the U.S.A. and Darkness on the Edge of Town. Springsteen is a Jersey boy who played some of his earliest gigs at the Stone Pony bar in Asbury Park at the Jersey Shore. His moniker derives from his role of distributing the money for a gig to band members during the early days of his musical career, but today, as a musical icon, he has someone else doing that job!

• Benny: A daytripper to the shore from northern Jersey; the name may have developed as an acronym for the stops along the train line before cars were ubiquitous: Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, New York.

• Disco Fries: New Jersey’s answer to poutine: French fries served with brown gravy and melted mozzarella cheese on top.

• D’Jeet Jet – Strung together slangily, the words in this phrase translate to: Did you eat yet? (Or using correct grammar, Have you eaten?) The usual response is, “No, D’jew?   (No, did you?)

• Down the Shore: Going to one of the many New Jersey beaches – Asbury Park, Point Pleasant, Seaside Heights — as in “I’m going down the shore.”

Jersey Shore by g2 Duckworth

• JBJ: Another present-day NJ musical hero: John Bon Jovi.

• Jersey Slide: Cutting from the left lane across multiple lanes of traffic to the exit – not exactly safe, but not uncommon, either.

• Jughandle: On a divided road, a right-hand exit that loops around to let the driver make a left turn; shaped like the handle on a jug.

• New Jersey Devil: The mythical creature after which the NHL team is named. It supposedly resides in the state’s Pine Barrens and has hooves, horns and bat wings. An incentive to eschew hiking in the Pine Barrens at night!

Taylor Ham on Toast. Photo by A Walker in LA is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

• Shoobie: A day-tripper to the Jersey shore from the south; the name ostensibly derives from the lunches they would bring along in shoeboxes in days gone by.

• Taylor Ham: A breakfast meat, shaped like a salami, that is sliced and pan fried. It’s also called pork roll.

So, study hard! Once you memorize these terms, it’s time to work on the accent. Cawfee, anyone?

Bridgerton-era Basics

Cover of the novel that forms the basis for Season One of Bridgerton.

The overwhelming success of Shondaland’s Netflix series, Bridgerton – 82 million viewers – has brought oodles of fans out of their closets (or should I say wardrobes and clothes presses?) to celebrate all things Regency. Historical romance readers and writers are busily sharing their favourite Regency-era book titles, while period clothing aficionados are eagerly showcasing their 1800s styles.

Now, it’s time for us language lovers to take a turn. Many of the Regency terms seem quaint and foreign to us now, but they shed light on life three centuries past. The British Regency Era marks the period from 1811-1820 when the Prince Regent took over the reins in Britain while his father, King George III, was incapacitated by mental illness. Despite the light tone conveyed by Bridgerton, life in the early 19^th century wasn’t all sweetness and light.

Anyone who watched the series will have heard multiple references to the Ton – from the French, bon ton, or good form (i.e., manners or breeding). This was high society, the wealthy, upper class to which the Bridgertons belonged. Some members belonged as a result of their titles, other their bloodlines. One’s heritage was all important in Regency England.

Well-to-do ladies and gentlemen didn’t work – their wealth made it unnecessary. Instead, like Daphne, Eloise and their brothers, they flocked to London for the Season, a period that extended early spring until the end of June. The Season offered the Ton an endless round of entertainments, designed to divert the leisure class.

Of course, the Regency overlapped the Industrial Revolution, and as agriculture was replaced by industry as the main driver of the economy, the wealth of the moneyed classes was equalled by that of industrialists and merchants. However, if these newly rich families were audacious enough to try to mingle with the ton, they might be derided as mushrooms, a term that refers to fungus that starts up in the dark of night. Not exactly welcoming!

In fact, the Ton enforced its social norms strictly and derision was one its weapons. Women who had intellectual or literary interests were often condescendingly called bluestockings and those who were unmarried after attending a few Seasons might be mocked as ape leaders, says author Candice Hearn,  since spinsters, according to an old English adage, would be punished after death for failing to procreate by leading apes in hell. Definitely not an era of women’s rights!

Yet, it was certainly an era of colourful slang. See if you can match these terms with their definitions. If so, you’re certainly ready for Season 2 of Bridgerton, filming now (answers below):

1. Blunt:                                                  a. Cursed or damned. In dice, a pair of twos is the worst possible roll.
2. Cast Up One’s Accounts:                    b. Give someone a black eye. Boxing was a favourite sport of the time.
3. Darken His Daylights:                         c. To vomit. Undoubtedly a frequent occurrence among the Ton.
4. Deuced:                                               d. As used in current Regency literature, a playboy or womanizer.
5. Diamond of the First Water:              e. Gossip. From the French, “One said.”
6. Leg-shackled:                                      f. Money or cash on hand.
7. On-dit:                                                 g. Beyond marriageable age (women) — as young as 22!
8. On the Shelf:                                       h. Married. A reference to being imprisoned in leg irons.
9. Rake:                                                    i. an exceedingly attractive woman – Daphne would qualify.

Answers: 1f;  2c;  3b;  4a;  5i;  6h;  7e;  8g;  9d

Of Bagels and Earls

Montreal’s St. Viateur Bagels; image by Julia Manzerova, via Creative Commons

My cousin and I were chatting the other day when, somehow, the conversation turned to Madonna’s 1986 hit song, La Isla Bonita.

“When my son was little,” said my cousin, “he thought that the lyrics, ‘Last night I dreamt of San Pedro,’ actually were, ‘Last night, I dreamt of a bagel.” I laughed and thought immediately of the earl – and mondegreens.

Mondegreens are misheard phrases, often from a song or a poem, that you as the listener make sense of by interpreting them as something completely different – like my young cousin and the bagel.

We’ve all undoubtedly created mondegreens while singing in the shower. Although people have been producing them for centuries, they didn’t have a snazzy name until 1954, when Sylvia Wright, a writer for Harper’s magazine, penned an essay about her own youthful confusion. Her mother would often read to Wright from an 18^th-century book of poems and ballads, including “The Bonny Earl o’Moray,” which contained the following verse:

“Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands / Oh, where hae ye been? / They hae slain the Earl Amurray, / And Lady Mondegreen.”

At least, that’s what Wright imagined she heard. The actual words were:

“They hae slain the Earl Amurray, /and laid him on the green (Lady Mondegreen!).”

Scottish earl from days of yore

With a language like English, with so many homophones (words that sound alike but have different meanings, e.g., No, Know), it’s probably inevitable. Nor is it a surprise that songs and poems are also a great source for these misheard phrases. Song lyrics fly by so quickly and may often be obscured by music, while poetry may use an older, unfamiliar version of English (Shakespeare, I’m looking at you!).  

And, if English isn’t your first language, it can simply compound the problem; ditto if the singer or poet has a strong accent. Luckily, our brains are clever and flexible, so they do their best to make sense of whatever we hear. Maria Konnikova, writing in New Yorker magazine, refers to Zipf’s law, where the actual frequency of a word in our daily lives can affect how seamlessly it’s processed. She gives the example of a chef who encounters an ambiguous phrase and may hear the word roe, instead of row.

Mondegreens can be quite entertaining. The Beatles’ renowned song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, references “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes,” which has been misheard as “the girl with colitis goes by,” says ThoughtCo.com, while Americans may put their hands over their hearts and say, “I led the pigeons to the flag. (I pledge allegiance to the flag.) New mondegreens crop up every day – if not in our own heads, then in someone else’s.

They are great for a chuckle, and in these pandemic times, we need all the chuckles we can find. As Sylvia Wright, herself, wrote:

“The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.”

More fun examples:

1. ‘You’re simply the best, better than an hour’s rest’

John Rentoul, a columnist for the Independent, wrote of someone who, for years, thought

 Tina Turner in “Simply the Best” was comparing her lover with putting her feet up (“Better than all the rest”)

2. ‘The ants are my friends; they’re blowin’ in the wind’

What Bob Dylan really meant, wrote Rentoul, citing another. (“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”)

3. ”Hold me closer, Tony Danza!”

Really? Sir Elton John was singing, “Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer?”

Do you have a favourite? Feel free to share!

Witty Winston: Churchill Had a Way with Words

Listening day in, day out to politicians who are sleek, slimy, stupid or oh-so-serious, I long for a leader like Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during the Second World War. Not only was Churchill smart, but he was witty and he loved language. Combine these with a sincere belief in the cause he was defending and you had an amazing leader.

Churchill had his faults, of course. He drank too much and he drove his staff hard, although he held himself to the same high standard. He also had an editor’s eye for language and would criticize memos and briefs that were poorly written or sloppily punctuated — which isn’t considered a fault in the eyes of us writers!

However, he was quite aware of his imperfections.

“I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod,” he noted, and also humorously said, “Unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life, I have tried to break myself of it.”

When Churchill took to the airwaves, his speeches brought out the best in his audience, urging them to be a better version of themselves — quite the opposite of what we hear in places such as the United States these days.

Churchill was top of mind this week as we quietly, in pandemic fashion, celebrated the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the date marking the defeat of the Nazi regime in Europe. The war took a great toll on people across the continent, but Churchill was determined that democracy should and would triumph, and he exhorted the British to stand tall. He worked tirelessly to unify his country during challenging times.

“Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy,” Churchill said in a 1941 speech.

As he urged America to join the fight against Nazism, he told the British, “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”

Yet, there was also a less serious side to this famous man, and he could offer rejoinders or observations full of wit and humour, and it is this that humanizes him further.

When asked why he missed so many trains and airplanes, Churchill replied, “I am a sporting man. I always give them a fair chance to get away.”

Enjoy a bit more of Churchill’s legendary wit in honour of the great leader who helped make VE Day possible:

On finances: “Saving is a fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.”

On wartime: “Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed.”

On POWs: “A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”

On the luxuries afforded him by his office: “I always manage somehow to adjust to any new level of luxury without whimper or complaint. It is one of my most winning traits.”

What a treat to have a leader who works for the good of all while making everyone smile! Thanks, Sir Winston!

Living in Interesting Times

Coronavirus Animation by Fusion Medical Animation

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. …” So opens Charles Dickens’ renowned novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

As we live through the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a quotation that seems peculiarly applicable in Canada, far from where Dickens originally penned his words. For those of us born before the Second World War, this is the closest we’ve come to a global crisis and its attendant deprivation and sacrifice.

In fact, on CBC-Radio’s Sunday Edition, host Michael Enright said we might consider it this generation’s WWII. There are parallels, of course. We are fighting an enemy, although this time, it’s an invisible one, yet it will still cost lives. We are facing deprivation – no face-to-face social intercourse with friends; shortages of necessary goods; and the necessity of staying indoors for the majority of our day. And, we are all in this together. However, unlike the Second World War, we are together separately. Social isolation means that we’re battling a common enemy, but doing so individually … which brings us to the best of times.

It is times of crisis that can bring out the best in us: our kindness to others and our altruism. For example, friends donated rolls of toilet paper to me when I was close to running out because there was none on the shelves. On the flip side, I’ve shopped for and delivered groceries to friends who can’t/are afraid to get out to the stores. Small things, perhaps, but they help colour in the larger picture of us pulling together. We all do what we can to assist those in need, and we’re more likely to seek out those opportunities because we know there’s need everywhere.

We’re also finding our creativity during our enforced solitude. Families are playing board games; band members are offering guitar lessons online; Facebook groups devoted to various projects are popping up to encourage members to work on their quilts, writing, woodworking, etc., separately, but together. With extra time on their hands, many people are trying new hobbies or reviving old ones. Online borrowing at public libraries is undoubtedly going through the roof.

Finally, we’re connecting with each other regularly! Since we can’t be social in person, we’re doing so digitally or by phone, with apps and conferencing programs. I’ve been in touch with a couple of old friends in the U.S. every day for the past few weeks; usually, we touch base every so often. We hunger for human connection and we’re reaching out.

So, while life may seem grim on the surface, if we dig a little deeper, we can find satisfaction, caring, connection and creativity. It may not be the best of times, but it has its upside.

As Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during the Second World War, said, “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes, we must do what’s required.” Let’s do so with enthusiasm, energy and creativity!

Stay healthy, all!

 

It Isn’t Easy Being Green

The fate of the planet is in our hands. (Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels)

When Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street renown first uttered this line, he wasn’t talking about the Earth. However, he might as well have been, given that the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED’s) 2019 word of the year is climate emergency. (Okay, in my mind, it’s a phrase, but … technicalities!)

Climate change is a hallmark of our times and never more so than in 2019, the year that Swedish student activist Greta Thunberg famously chastised the ambassadors to the United Nations for their inaction, saying, “How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

A few decades ago, climate change was a serious concern; today, it has become a climate emergency. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree that if we don’t take drastic action, the Earth’s surface temperature will likely increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030-2052, a level at which the effects will include irreversible changes such as more extreme weather events, sweeping migration and food shortages. The OED underlines the seriousness of our collective inability to take action by choosing climate emergency as its word of the year.

In its media release about its choice, the OED folks pointed out that the media helped turn the tide of language usage, stating:

“One high profile example of this language development is the changes made by the Guardian newspaper in its reporting of environmental news in May. The newspaper stated that instead of climate change, its preferred terms are ‘climate emergency, crisis, or breakdown’ to describe the broader impact of climate change. The move prompted other media outlets to review and update their own policies and approaches to reporting on the climate.”

“The phrase ‘climate change’, for example, sounds rather passive and gentle when what scientists are talking about is a catastrophe for humanity,” wrote the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katherine Viner.

Given the precarious state of the Earth today, all of the words on the OED’s shortlist of choices related to the environment. If that’s not a call to action, I don’t know what is!

Boo to You, too!

The leaves are turning colour, the air has a chill to it and the days are getting shorter, so all indications point to the approach of Halloween, a favourite North American celebration for children and those of us who are kids at heart.

Among the children trick or treating at doors throughout the continent, there always a number of ghosts – they’re spooky and it’s always easy to cut a few holes in a white sheet, after all. It’s no surprise when some of these wee ghosties shout, “Boo,” at those who hand out treats. It’s what ghosts say, after all. But why? And where did it all begin?

Linguistically speaking, Boo as an interjection meant to frighten is easy to explain. The B is an explosive sound; when coupled with the roaring sound made by “oo,” it is startling, indeed. The brevity of the exclamation may also make it scarier.

The origin of the term is more uncertain. The exclamation has been used to scare people as far back as the 17^th century; the Oxford English Dictionary offers a quotation from the periodical, Remembrancer (1628, VIII 261): “When a child cryes boh To fright his Nurse.” A 2014 linguistics study maintains that the earliest references to the term come from the 1738 work, Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Display’d, by Gilbert Croakatt and Jacob Curate, a pseudonym for John Monroe. They define it as “a word that is used in the north of Scotland to frighten crying children.”

The renowned 19^th-century Scottish novelist, Sir Walter Scott, wrote, “We start and are afraid when we hear one cry Boh!” in his 1830 Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, defining it as “an exclamation intended to surprise or frighten.”

Although most European cultures understand the term as one intended to scare, notes writer Forrest Wickman, in France, you might shout, “Hou,” while in Czech, people cry, “Baf!”

What’s even scarier is that the word has morphed, as words are wont to do in living languages, into a modern term that refers to one’s boyfriend/girlfriend or significant other. Boo, in that case, is thought to derive from the French term, beau.

So, now that you’ve enhanced your understanding of frightening terms, on Halloween, you’re entitled to hand out Smarties!

Open Up That Portmanteau!

As both travel lover and a history buff, I certainly knew what a portmanteau was – after all, fictional characters of yore would regularly be found packing such suitcases and hitting the unpaved, often muddy roads on the stagecoach or in private conveyances.

It wasn’t until recently, however, that I came across the term’s more interesting usage while reading a current novel. One of the characters, a writer, referred to portmanteaus and I knew he didn’t mean travelling bags with two compartments. After a rendezvous with a trusty dictionary, I emerged, minutes later, enlightened. There are, indeed, two parts to the other portmanteaus, which are words formed by combining two different terms to create a new entity, blending their sounds and meanings.

We’ve all used portmanteaus without realizing it: smog, for example, is a combination of smoke and fog. Or consider brunch, which combines breakfast and lunch. One of the most current examples is that of the podcast, an addiction for the cellphone generation who listens on the go; it meshes iPod, a term for the listening device, with broadcast, the descriptor of the content.

Lewis Carroll, author of the renowned 19^th-century novel, Through the Looking Glass: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, was the first to use the term portmanteau for a blended word that contains some of the meaning of both of its parts. When Alice asks Humpty-Dumpty about the meaning of the word, slithy, from Carroll’s nonsense poem, “Jabberwocky,” the clever egg replies, “Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’ ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.” (https://www.britannica.com/topic/portmanteau-word)

The technical term for portmanteaus is blended words – not quite as picturesque or descriptive as the words themselves. They are a form of shorthand and, while they may sound odd to the unprepared ear, many are adopted into our everyday language and are so common that we don’t usually think of their origins.

Here are a few that have undoubtedly come your way and a link to some others; do share your own favourites!

Bollywood: The movie industry in India, a combination of Bombay and Hollywood

Bromance: A close relationship between two men, combining brother and romance

Chillax: Be calm, a combination of chill and relax

Chunnel: the tunnel between England and France that crosses the English Channel

Glamping: Luxury camping, a combination of glamour and camping

Mansplaining: Explaining something to a woman in a condescending fashion; combines man and explaining

Motel: An overnight way station for car/bus travellers, combining motor and hotel

Workaholic: Someone who works excessive hours, combining work and alcoholic

When Is a Noun not a Noun?

During a recent visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario, an editor friend and I recoiled in horror from one of the descriptions attached to a piece of textile art, explaining that it “foregrounds” the intersection between conflict and community.

To me, foreground has always been a noun, one that can be defined as “the part of a view that is nearest to the observer, especially in a picture or photograph.” Therefore, I was quite surprised to discover that, indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary does list a verb form of the word, foreground: make (something) the most prominent or important feature.

In addition to enlarging my vocabulary, the incident caused me to reflect on other nouns that are now being used as verbs. In more scholarly language, this process is called denominalization and it’s not a new phenomenon, says JStor Daily. Playwright William Shakespeare was a master of this art, which is colloquially called verbing. “Cudgel thy brains no more about it,” wrote Shakespeare in Hamlet. (A cudgel is a “short, thick stick used as a weapon,” such as a club.)

An engraved vintage illustration of William Shakespeare  (Getty Images/istockphoto)

Over time, denominal verbs are incorporated into mainstream English and we don’t realize that they once morphed from nouns: consider lacing our shoes (vs. tying our shoelaces) or elbowing someone out of the way (vs. nudging someone with an elbow to force them to move).

In fact, we’re busy creating denominal verbs all the time. Think of the terms email, text and Google – all respectable nouns that have become equally well used as verbs.

“One remarkable aspect of our capacity to use language is our ability to create and understand expressions we have never heard before,” wrote the Stanford University researchers, Eve and Herbert Clark in a 1979 paper about denominalization published in the journal, Language.

Language is fluid and evolving, but there are still noun-as-verb usages that rankle, no matter what the dictionary tells me. One that comes quickly to mind is medal. With an Olympic year fast approaching, we’ll see plenty of the gold, silver and bronze varieties of these trophies of success, but we’ll also undoubtedly hear dozens of commentators and athletes talking about “medalling” in a particular event. My skin has begun crawling in advance!

Do You Speak Flowers?

Red Roses by Biel Morro, Unsplash

With the advent of spring — long- awaited in Toronto — a completely different set of words re-enters our vocabulary, words such as birdsong, gardens, and lawnmowers. After a long, cold winter, it is a relief, once again, to be speaking of warmth, sunshine, buds and blossoms.

One of the chief delights of springtime is the re-emergence of flowers from their winter dormancy. The joy of seeing splashes of colour dotting the ground can’t be denied. They speak to us of pleasures yet to come, such as walks outdoors, barbecues and meeting friends for drinks on patios.

Hydrangeas by Annie Spratt, Unspash

As we gorge ourselves on the myriad hues, we may not realize that flowers can also be symbols. The language of flowers – not florid speech, which is another issue altogether – is also known as floriography and has been popular in various cultures down the centuries. In England and North American, interest in floriography soared during the Victorian era in the 19^th century. The flower experts at the floral delivery service, FTD, suggest that “the rise of flower symbolism during this time makes sense, as it was the height of the Romantic era where nature was seen as beauty, and people were heavily influenced by their emotions. Floriography allowed for a tangible exchange of these emotions.”

An abundance of strong emotion notwithstanding, the Victoria era was also a time when strict rules governed the expression of those emotions among the British upper classes. Flirtation, which had been de rigueur during the Regency period, was forbidden, so people resorted to more covert means of expressing their interest or affection. Each flower in a bouquet represented a particular emotion, and floral dictionaries also bloomed in abundance as both givers and recipients strove to communicate using coded language.

With Mother’s Day approaching in North America, it’s a perfect time to practise your own skill at floriography, or, as Atlas Obscura deems it, the 19^th-century version of emojis. Consider ordering a bouquet for your Mom that includes some of these blooms: pink carnation (I’ll never forget you), lavender (devotion), morning glory (affection) and yarrow (everlasting love), or choose from an existing list to create a mixture that accurately reflects the message you want to convey.

Beware, however! Not all flowers convey positive messages, so stay clear of the yellow carnation (disdain), yellow hyacinth (jealousy) and tansy (hostile thoughts) or you might receive a rhododendron (danger, flee) in return!