Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Lasterday: Made-up Words

My daughter, who is almost four, has her own little collection of made up words. Most of the time she's speaks the same dialect as the rest of us, but every now and then the Made-Up-Words come out.

Member - This one's just short for Remember, but it's still cute.

  • "You said I could have a treat after I ate all my lunch, member?"

Yabecause - This is said all as one word. She uses it when she's looking for an excuse to get out of something. Not only that, but it's usually used in the completely wrong way. (Is there actually a wrong way to use made-up words?)

  • me: "It's time for bed."
  • her: "Yabecause, I want to watch a movie."
  • me: "You already watched one. Now it's time for bed."
  • her: "Yabecause..... (thinking really hard, looking around her room for something, anything, to ask for...) I want another drink."
  • me: "Okay, one more drink.... (gets another drink, tucks her in - again) Go to sleep!"
  • her: (two minutes later) "Mom!"
  • me: "Go to sleep!" (trying to maintain the sweet voice, despite my desire to duck tape her to the bed)
  • her: "Yabecause, I can't fall asleep..."

Begot - It's amazing how many times she can use this one.

  • "Mom, we begot to have a vitamin."
  • "Mom, we begot to have a treat."
  • "Mom, we begot to play the game."
           Then, of course, I like to point out how she "begot" to say "forgot".


Lasterday - This is her most recent word, and one I thought was pretty unique. Until I looked it up on the good old web. It's not actually a word, but it's used a lot. Urban Dictionary has several:

  • A word used to describe an indefinite time in the past (e.g. last week, last month, last year)
         Remember lasterday when we went to the beach?
  • The time peroid that falls between yesterday and last week. Excelent for college students who don't have the capacity to remember what day it is. 
         Jess: Yell lost her phone lasterday.
  • The day or days before today, any day before the current day with no exact date in mind.
                I did that at school lasterday.

Hmmm... I wonder if I can use them all in a sentence...

"Yabecause you begot to paint my fingernails lasterday, member?"

Whether in real life or in the world of fiction - I'd love to hear about the made-up words in your world.

3 comments:

Stina said...

Instead of saying tomorrow, my daughter would say "after today." It took us years to retrain her.

Rachael Anderson said...

So cute! I love it. :) Every time my daughter sneezes, she says, "Mommy, I blessyoued." I don't want her to outgrow things like that. Tantrums, on the other hand . . . :)

This Place is a Disaster! said...

We have Lasterday But they also say Lasteryear!!!!