Starting Early

I'm starting early. In 2007, I'd like to see my invented word used by others. I'd like it to skim the hipster crowd and bee-line to top contender status for 2007 Word of the Year.

Granted, I'm only a little blogger and aspiring writiner, not some 100-year old organization of linguists, grammarians, historians and other -ians and -ists.

However, I must say that mine surpasses one of their 2006 nominations - the word "murse" (man purse). My invented word is "munt" (replace the m with a c, you have the male version). My friend M pointed this out after I sent her a link to the American Dialect Society's press release. Their word of the year is "plutoed" - which is worthy of distinction. But "murse," really? Uh huh.

I'm not a fan of the c version of "munt." I must confess that the skit in The Vagina Monologues which consisted mostly of saying that word (over and over) was uncomfortable to me. I think every part of my body was itchy, scratchy and fidgety during that piece. And my face - bright red - if the overhead lights had been on. But munt - I'm instantly at ease with this term.

M and I created the term when we worked together. We used it for certain male pitas (pains in the ass). Take the c, replace it with the m - and there you go. Does not sound offensive, can be said in the office, while expressing exactly what you're thinking. Love it.

It reminds me of when my cousin J and I made up our own secret language. But only for cuss words. Or rather, only for cuss words that we thought were cuss words in grade school. I remember whispering in the corner of my grandmother's bedroom while the adults were far off in the living room, chatting. We thought we were so sneaky - with our code we could cuss and no one would know. Who knows why this was so important, but it was.

We each made a copy of the list - known word and our made up word - and put them in our matching green, handknit purses with lollipops on them. (Right now I'm thinking what a bad idea that was - course this was the 70s and the purses maybe were a little more mainstream?) It was all fun at the time.

Ah, youthful foolishness. I don't think we ever used the terms - but munt, it's already had some mileage.