A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 990

I think the Australians are the world champion condensers of the English language. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was understandably shortened to the MCG. It is now known as the G. What’s next? A simple glottal stop?
-Jonathan Sims, St Teath, UK (profitpie aol.com)

Many people use rents for parents.
-Robb Knapp, Ebensee am Traunsee, Austria (robb robbsbooks.com)

About 35 years ago, my husband, our friend Pat, and I were riding in a car together looking for a parking space. When I thought I spied one, Pat said, “Nah, that’s a drunt” (a fire hydrant). Hubby and I have been calling it a drunt ever since. Even Pat doesn’t know that... yet.
-Gabriele Schafer, Brooklyn, New York (gaby ratconference.com)

In my family we nug, which is, of course, a contraction of snuggle.
-Suzanne Taylor, Anchorage, Alaska (suzannet601 gmail.com)

My family lived in Japan for several years, and we often use the abbreviation “sando” to refer to a sandwich. In Japanese they use the loan word サンドイッチ or “sandoicchi” which is sometimes abbreviated “sando” on menus and the like, and we just imported it into our family lexicon.
-Jeremy Edwards, Brussels, Belgium (pazmundial gmail.com)

We have a friend who likes to say sitch for situation, merch for merchandise, and stimmy for stimulus check (my favorite!).
-Lorinda Lucas (via website comments)

Maybe our most common contraction is “goodbye”, a contraction of “God be with ye.” Not being a proponent of God, I’m sometimes silently self-conscious about saying “goodbye” to people. Perhaps I should try to consistently say “See ya”, as with the French “Au revoir”.
-Rob Butler, Andover, Massachusetts (rob.butler.999 gmail.com)

Well, my girlfriend uses one that I’d never heard before. She says micro for microwave.
-Steven Stein, The Villages, Florida (steve32162 gmail.com)

When referring to my animals I often call them mules. For example, “It’s time to feed the mules.”
-Tom Oakes, Southbury, Connecticut (toakes snet.net)

A number of English words have been borrowed into Thai, given Thai pronunciations, and then abbreviated to the point where they are unrecognizable. So I recently had to take my Chep in for new chock-ap. (Chevrolet and shock-absorbers).
-Alec Bamford, Bangkok, Thailand (chanida.alec gmail.com)

Meteorologists use the word “prog” (short for “prognosticate” or “prognostication”) for “forecast”. They also use the acronym “CAFB” for “clear as a [ahem] bell, i.e., cloudless”.
-Sam Long, Springfield, Illinois (gunputty comcast.net)

My friend in Melbourne OZ writes “goss” in her letters and emails -- and I finally had to ask her what it meant. I would not have known it meant “gossip”.
-Marlene Fair-Fischer, Vista, California (via website comments)

My daughter did not understand me today when, after tap dance class, I said, “This new instructor is more trad than our usual teacher.” Traditional.
-Rich West, Alhambra, California (westrichie yahoo.com)

Apparently, all sorts of lenses used in front of the human eye are subject to contractions. As an ageing ornithologist it often bothers me that I have to remove my specs before looking through my binos (or bins, even) or my scope.
-Barbara Ganter, Husum, Germany (barbara.ganter t-online.de)

Many years ago, members of my hang-gliding community used to refer to bystanders and especially gawkers as “wuffos”, typifying their questions as “Wuffo you want to go way up there for?” It was not uncommon for overly curious bystanders to ask us questions that we had heard many times before, at times when we were concentrating on the task of properly assembling or checking our gliders.
The unfortunate disparaging aspect of the term came about because it was always difficult to properly balance public relations with sufficient concentration to maintain our own safety.
-Chuck Malloch, Montague, Massachusetts (CBMalloch icloud.com)

“Unfort” as in: Unfort, I may need to explain.
-Barbara Degyansky, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania (degyansky verizon.net)

Family usage: Slater = See ya later.
-Dave Puketza, Sacramento, California (dpuketza gmail.com)

One of my favorite hyper-contractions in these parts, Raleigh, NC, is “Jeet?”, short for “Did you eat?”, often eliciting a reply of, “No, djou?”
-Timothy Hinds, Raleigh, North Carolina (hinds.timothy epa.gov)

Just a silly family one: Sqweet = let’s go eat.
-Raymond Daull, Cleveland, Ohio (daull att.net)

As a scientist, now retired, I would say, “I’m going to phorese my samples” meaning analyze them using electrophoresis. Having never thought of the derivation, I checked out phoresis and learned it is derived from Greek meaning to carry.
-Kent Rhodes, Charlotte, North Carolina (krho1 aol.com)

Everyone uses bougie for bourgeois.
-Donna Cox Wells, Tarzana, California (donnacoxwells gmail.com)

I’m all for contractions, except when Australians do them. They always end them with such an inappropriately cutesy “ie” sound. A barbie is a doll, not a barbecue! A Hell’s Angel is a biker, not a bikie! That rugby-soccer-volleyball thing that they play down there should be football, not footy! Man up, Ozzies!
-Steve Benko, New York, New York (stevebenko1 gmail.com)