The phrase "trailing spouse" has just blipped onto my radar.
The meaning was clear from context: the spouse without the new job that requires a relocation.
Back in the day when Dad changed jobs, Mum was just called "his wife." There was a whole wonderful company, that while intended to market services to newcomers, worked out to be a social club that welcomed ladies like Mum to the new town: Welcome Wagon. Their motto? Bloom where you are planted.
Looking back I see a lot of assumptions in that motto, but those WW ladies were awfully nice. One of them served as a reference for me when I applied for a library card. Little did she know my borrowing habits were just short of larceny, and the size of my overdue fines a source of mortification for my parents.
But I digress.
Trailing spouse was new to me.
As was the word crot.
And spirit level.
Have you come across new-to-you words or phrases lately? Do tell!
25 comments:
Jomo - slang acronym for the 'joy of missing out,' like sneaking out of a party to go write. Opposite of 'fomo' (fear of missing out).
I've been feeling that the English language lacks adequate descriptors for the current state of 'things'. I didn't know there was a transitive verb-version of the word 'abomination'. So now... I abominate ignoble, ignorant grifters who, despite limited intellectual capacity, are able to steal elections and decimate democracies.
Haven't heard a new phrase in a minute.
Oh, except that one. Apparently, "in a minute" is now synonymous with "forever and then a little bit more."
And like the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (which I haven't referred to in a minute), as soon as I discovered the phrase, both my son and the cashier at Taco Bell spoke the exact words later that very day.
Also, I'm sure it's not so new. The phrase has surely traveled like Marco Polo if I'm hearing about it.
Apparently ‘school clothes shopping’ has a new meaning. On a recent trip to the city a teenager in my family interpreted it to mean ‘ditch grandma and get your belly button pierced’.
'In a minute' and 'Just a minute' were very common in the south many years ago. Usually spoken by children when a parent required their attention to a chore.
I had to look up crot. Useful and onomatopoetic! John Davis Frain, my hometown newspaper has a forum largely devoted to people sharing their Badaer-Meinhof phenomena. It took me a minute to get used to people reporting on the quality and frequency of their "B-M's". I had a great one (Baader-Meinhof, just to be clear) just the other day, but I've already forgotten what it was. Maybe I'll get to experience it all over again.
I could get behind jomo 100 percent, Lennon.
My damn kid invoked "Boomer" this week, a sly smile curling the corners of his mouth.
OT: Janet, I love your writing, but the falling leaves on your backdrop really tweak my eyes. Pretty, but distracting. Not sure if that's helpful or not, but thought I would toss it out there.
I have no new phrases to add (I am not cool, and have happily accepted it) but when I read Jomo, my heart sang. No other phrase/word has resonated with me so strongly! Will definitely be using it from now on.
I am in a rut and not finding anything new or exciting in the word world,
Oh schnitzel, that isn't a rut. it's query trench.
Visco girl was new to me!
Timothy Lowe what leaves?
Make Play Bazaar sure you have realistic earning expectations before you decide to get into multi-level marketing. Income generation and success is not as fruitful as many multi-level marketing companies make you Satta King believe.
Funny thing is... I thought they were leaves too - until I read Timothy's comment and went back to suss it out. Then I saw... fish. How odd.
Hmm..guess my eyes were really tweaked. I blame Celebration Ale, and the 6-2 Buffalo Bills.
Great Stars Above!
Or should I say Great Sea of Blue!
Hope you're happy Timothy Lowe! Nothing like bringing out the sharktastic humor of our great QOTKU!
So I had to come back this morning and say that I had to look up "chewing the scenery", after seeing it repeated several times on Twitter over the weekend.
Also, my library recently went fine-free for the kiddos, and while we're still working out the bugs in the system, I feel like it's already had a positive impact on our patrons.
Ooh, love the Great Sea of Blue!
I know it's not exactly new, but the turning of nouns into adjectives still throws me. I live in the horse world so sorry, my example is coming from that! Instead of saying "I have a lesson at eight," someone will say, "I'm lessoning at eight." Anyone else have more general examples of this? They're escaping me at the moment!
I'm always a little weirded out when my kids who play sports say they are "versing" another team. I always correct them, telling them, "no, you're playing versus St Mark's." But they persist in using it as a verb.
As the mother of three kids ages 12, 13, and 20—so all right around the teenage years—I am introduced to new slang all the time. "Lit" means cool, as in, "that's so lit," but "fire" means even more cool than "lit." "That's a mood" is a moving target but seems to mean something like a raised eyebrow. "Fight me" (which I'm using as the title of the YA novel I'm doing for NaNoWriMo!) is used where we might say "so sue me": it's brassy and belligerent, chest-beating. "On brand" means what you might think, but now it's used with regard to personality, like, "that's so on brand for you" means "yeah that's something you'd do."
Someone mentioned "boomer"—I just read a great article in the NYT about the rise of the phrase "OK boomer" among Gen Z (my kids), although when I asked my son, he'd never heard of it.
*typing from coach seat direct to Carkoon*
Anytime!
Our library has been fine free for I don't know how long. I moved here 30 years ago, and I can't ever remember paying a late fine, and it's not because I have not returned books late. They will restrict new borrows if you are REALLY late, but otherwise, they just send you passive aggressive emails about your tardiness.
I've heard the "trailing spouse" designation a long time ago, but heck if I know where.
Hope all are well and productive! I just went to a weekend writing retreat and am feeling newly inspired, or I will be as soon as I catch up on sleep.
Oh, and Reider Claire Borrow was sweet enough to show up at my painting show opening this weekend in Seattle, during a family visit with her husband. Huzzah!
In revision, I frequently find that I’ve either used the character’s proper name fifteen times on a page or not at all.
I just heard the word 'narratology' which I think is one of those abominations academics think up. They already have historiography which basically means the same thing.
I have been a trailing spouse for most my married life, being married to a former academic. He switched programs, won fancy prizes, got post-docs, etc, in all kinds of lovely places. Fortunately I like to travel and don't feel inadequate. Some spouses found it rough to be second fiddle, or just found it boring to be around academic shop talk all the time.
Unfortunately the 'trailing' designation does tend to stick around. It can be ten years after a couple is hired, often in two different departments, and both can be tenured, equally distinguished, and so on. Whichever one happened to be 'trailing' originally is often still referred to that way.
Um, tried to post once, I think the internet ate it.
Today my son, who is not quite 20, told me about "Boomer".
He thought it was rude, but then both his parents are Baby Boomers (tail end).
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