Thursday, April 13, 2006

Look what's new and "Wordplay"!...



I wanted to thank everyone for wishing my Matthew a happy birthday yesterday.  That was very nice of you.  So there are a couple new features with the journals that I am very excited about!!  Did you know that the "All About Me" section has gone from 1,000 characters to 25.000!  Wow!  I am so excited about this because I have never been able to fit everything I have wanted to in there and make it as artistic as I wanted to at the same time.  I am so, so excited about this.  Also, did you notice if you type in http://journals.aol.com/andyourscreenname you can pull up a list of your journals.  The most exciting thing about this is there is a search engine at the bottom of this page where you can plug in anyone's screen name and find all of their journals.  No more wondering IF someone has a journal or how many journals they have or sifting through a search on the blog home page!!!  Yay!!  I am very excited about this.  I have bookmarked my page so I can do an easy search.  Neat!  There are a few other things that came out that I need to find out more about, but I am very excited about these two things.  Can you tell?!! =)!!  I wanted to let you guys know if you had not heard about them!

                                       

Now on to "Wordplay"!  Today I wanted to talk about idioms.  An idiom is defined by Webster as 1. Language peculiar to a people, district, community, or class; and   2.  An expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically, or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements.

I wanted to talk about idioms we use in everyday talk.  I think we could come up with good ones because we are from all over the country!  This could be lots of fun!  Before I put together this entry I talked to my sister, her husband, and my boyfriend this morning to see if they could come up with one or two.  I didn't want to give Krissy's away as she wanted to contribute on her own.  Her husband, however had an interesting idiom that is indigenous to his hometown, Hazleton, PA.  They say, "Haina?" there alot.  Haina is a word of agreement.  They can say, "Nice day, haina?"  Or someone can say, "The color blue is pretty."  and you can say, "haina".  Here in central PA they use "read up" alot.  It can be used as, "Let's read up the kitchen."  It is short for ready up.  It means to clean up.  I have not been able to catch on to that one.  It has been too foreign for me.  I do say, "Wanna come with" alot for, "Do you wanna come with me."   Interestingly, "this" and "next" when I am talking about days of the week and time are different for me and my children.   What I mean is that, if I were to say to my kid's, "I am going to the zoo next Monday." (and I said it today, Thursday), I would mean that I am going in four days.  To my kids, it would mean that I am going in 11 days.  This has caused much confusion!

What about youWhat can you come up withDo you remember any idioms from your childhood Did you move and have to get used to new onesAny idiom stories?  Please leave your contribution in the comments section.  If you want to do this as an entry in your journal, please come back and leave the URL to your entry so I can go and read it!!  Thanks!!

Have a good rest of the week, everyone! xox


16 comments:

  1. I don't know if this is the same this but Eric and I say Odaat alot.  We made it up.  It means One Day At A Time.  We do this with alot of phrases using only the first letter of a phrase and making a word of of it like saying the letters goi of get over it.  We do say yall alot here in Texas.  Barbara

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  2. When I was small and had been to visit my Granny who lived just up the road from us ,as I left her house she would intsruct me to keep on the pad (path),and if you havent got anything ,you havent got oat..........Jan xx

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  3. I really like the new journal features, especially the character increase in About Me! :-)

    ~ Susan
    http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/TheStrawberryPatch

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  4. Greetings from England.

    How about gobsmacked. It means suprised/shocked.

    Vanda

    http://gammavh.blogspot.com/

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  5. The first one I can think of is Ya'll.  I say that sometimes because I used to live in VA.  Now that I live in PA, sometimes people look at me strange when I say it.  The other one I can think of is Twenty-four/seven.  As in "I have to keep after my children twenty/four seven."  It means twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  Like all the time!  Another phrase I can think of, and I heard this for the first time in Pittsburgh was, "Get out of my house!"  It means back off.  Like, "get out of my face".

    Krissy
    http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink  

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  6. IN MY FAMILY WE USE THE EXPRESSION "JLH". IT COMES FROM THE FACT THAT WHEN MY KIDS WERE SMALLER, LIKE TEENS, IF THEY DID SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT REALLY RIGHT, OR STUPID, OR ANYTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY, WE SAID JLH.(IT REFERS TO MY LATE HUSBAND-MEANING "JUST LIKE HIM") WE STILL USE IT...ROBERTA

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  7. I'm from NY......Can I keep this under a few lines? LOL!

    Yoh!   =  Hello, or come here. Stop and chat for a minute. How are you doing? Good to see you? (and more.... used mostly by men and boys)

    What's up? = How are you? How have you been? Anything new? Got a job? How's the family?

    Your momma = I have nothing more to say to you. (more inner city)

    Haaaaaaaaay = What a nice surprise seeing you again!

    Kidding me = Depending upon the mood of the conversation.....How sad. Oh no! I can't believe it. So sorry.

    Whatdoyuhknow!!!! = I can't believe it's really you!

    I could go on and on and on. : )

    Thanks for the journal info,
    Angela






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  8. My family happens to say "Hiya" a lot, as a greeting...a slurring of "Hi you".  We also say that if we are going to visit someone, say Val for instance, We say we're "going by Val" instead of going to visit Val.
    -Kellen

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  9. Wonder if that increase in All About Me is just for American journals or applies over here.  Hope Matt had a wonderful birthday.  Happy Easter Val xxxxx

    http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/

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  10. Hi Val,  As my journal is American even though I`m not I should get the same benefits as you.  I must go and have a look. :o)

    Sandra xxxxx

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  11. Hi Val, I was just over at Andi's journal, and I noticed she mentioned you as no. 7 out of 6 guest editor's picks!  So I wanted to congratulate you for almost being a Guest Editor's Pick, lol!  No, really, congrats, your journal is the best.  And go check this out:  
    http://journals.aol.com/artloner/SheSaidWhat/entries/751

    I love you Sissy, like I said, your journal is the BEST.  Now I must run, Michael just threw up on the rug, lol.

    Krissy :)
    http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

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  12. First, Happy Belated Birthday to Matthew!!!!

    I'm sure if I wasn't so tired I could think of some of the things ... especially when I was living in Indiana, seems they had a LOT.

    Mmm, I wonder what I would write in the about me?  I have a hard time with those sections.

    Monica

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  13. Happy Birthday to Matthew for yesterday, sorry I'm late!!!
    Sara   x

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  14. Thanks for visiting my journal Val.   Hope you have a good Easter.   I hope John is doing alright in the hospital.    I can't think of any idioms other than "howdy".     You can click -Community-hometown- and your journals will appear also.   Sometimes it has problems loading and says "please wait" and I give up and go to my search on the right and if I had been to my journal recently it will appear by entry.    I have two entry's of recent and one is of Salty.    mark
    http://journals.aol.com/mtrib2/MarksDailyJournal/entries/735

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  15. I am so excited about those 25000 characters too and the screenname search...
    Happy Birthdays all around and have a wonderful, wonderful Easter!!!
    Linda :)

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  16.     Val, this is your Dadeo. . .   Chelsea and Matt's Opa. . .   most of my elementary school period, as I think I told you, was spent in Indiana, Pa., about 50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, the only location in the state that ends in burg(h) and 30 miles south of PUNXSUTAWNEY (an Iroquois Indian idiomish  meaning, "where the gnats live"). PHIL, the February 2nd  weather prophet, and I were born in PUNXY.   Probably one of the most frequently used idioms was JEET JET? Which, of course meant, DID YOU EAT YET?  I like it much better than HAINA, as my 260 diet-derived pounds testify to (who said that Americans cannot end a sentence with a preposition?).  The answer to the question was either, JESS or NO, JU?  I have to go now as I have to RED-UP my room by REDDING-OFF my desk first, before I have a SAMICH for lunch.  The Earl would not like to see his name besmirched this way?      

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