Isoglossia abides

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By Erik Rasmussen

Crouton payload

Crouton payload

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Idiolect

In linguistics, an idiolect is a variety of a language unique to an individual. It is manifested by patterns of vocabulary or idiom selection (the individual’s lexicon), grammar, or pronunciations that are unique to the individual. Every individual’s language production is in some sense unique. [Wikipedia]

This glossary refers to the variety of language unique to our family, rather than to any one of us individually. We share everything else, why not an idiolect?

Acqua people — Slow-moving and torpid people, usu. in shops (particularly IKEAs), impeding the progress of the efficient and virtuous. See MORONICITY.
Ankaron – pasta. Stress on second syllable.
~atoa — intensifying suffix. Typically appended to verbs and nouns of impact, injury, or general woe. See BONKATOA, CRASHATOA, KRAKATOA, PINCHATOA, and (most felicitous of all) STUBATOA.
Bonkatoa — a major bonk. See ~ATOA.
BITWRATHPLOOB — Acronym: buck-toothed troll-haired rope-armed pantsless wood bear. More common than you would think.
Buckwheat — adj. describing the indescribable, the inscrutable, the ineffable, unkennable, and dumb. Metaphorically, a placeholder for anything nonsensical, shorthand for something that defies logic, understanding, common sense, but in a certain endearing way.
Come friendly bombs! — imprecation. Similar to HELL’S BELLS, q.v. Often a call for the destruction of squalid surroundings, if not the speaker. Also used to call attention to the futility of urban improvement.
Crashatoa — a collision between motor vehicles or a motor vehicle and a horse-drawn rubbish-harvesting conveyance. See ~ATOA.
Dangerest – superlative: most dangerous, e.g. “if the battery of your car wuns out in the middle of the woad, that would be DANGEREST.”
Everything I touch turns to shit! — self-evident statement or tautology. Frequently abbreviated to EITTTS.
Fosa — Couch. Aleksism.
Gantry — favored pron. of ‘pantry’ (not for playing).
Gook Gack! — nonce interjection used to remind surrounding company of one’s presence and importance (archaic).
Heid — favored pron. of ‘head’ (Scots).
Hell’s Bells! — imprecation. Used to express capitulation in the face of universe’s overwhelming indifference, esp. while setting up tent in wind & rain near Grand Canyon (archaic). See EVERYTHING I TOUCH TURNS TO SHIT!
“I could handle those diesels with bent buffers and a busted boiler!” — quote, from “Thomas the Tank Engine”. Used to express supercilious derision at one’s brother’s/son’s fecklessness in tidying up Lego®s.
Klet — cellar or basement (Slovene). Where Lego®s go if they are not tidied up.
Kosilophone — Xylophone. Portmanteau of two Slovene words, kosilo (‘lunch’) and ksilophone (XYLOPHONE, q.v.)
Krakatoa — a major crack (usu. on the HEID, q.v.). See ~ATOA.
Majtki — underpants (Polish).
Malkovich — multipurpose expletive replacement.
Moronicity — the quality of being infested with morons (or ACQUA PEOPLE, q.v.). Common collocation is moronicity level: elevated.
“Never sit on a cracked toilet” — quote, traditional. Refers to the pedantic obviousness of intergenerational advice. Also shibboleth whose correct rejoinder is “Cut you right in half.”
Pinchatoa — a serious incident of pinching, as in the door of the washing machine. See ~ATOA.
Poopoo! Poopoo! — false alarm or red herring.
Potnik — sleeveless undershirt or ‘wifebeater’ (Bulgarian: ‘traveler’).
Round circle — geom.: a round plane figure whose circumference consists of points equidistant from a fixed point at the center. Tautologous. Common collocation: ‘Papa, help me draw a round circle’.
Stop building crap! — invocation to urban improvers to cease and desist.
Stubatoa — (rare) the catastrophic stubbing of a toe or, in the case of Alek, the entire foot. See ~ATOA.
Sweaty pants — state of dampness of MAJTKI (q.v.) following micturation, ranging in severity from a single drop to level just short of that necessitating a load of laundry.
Vex — annoy, pester, disturb, or trouble, esp. before daylight. Common collocation is Oh vex me not sorely!
Voziček — Slovene dimutive of ‘vehicle’, hence ‘pushchair’ or ‘stroller’. By extension a homemade conveyance melding the wheels and chassis of the former with a cast-off lager crate, e.g., and used to facilitate the harvesting of rubbish, as in ‘Look Papa, a homemade rubbish-harvesting voziček!’
Xylophone — Musical instrument of the percussion family. See KOSILOPHONE. Collocation PFC Xylophone refers to the constant, lifelong annoyance of being at or near the end of any alphabetical line or list.
‘Your father weren’t no glazier’ Move or sit down, you’re blocking the damn television.