May I have a word: Mirror images
What Noreen Barnes, of Acton, came up with was semi-geographical. She wrote: 'I would suggest
derma incognita
— that unknown territory. My spouse would call it
derma obscura,
as in
humana obscura
, and Ed De Vos, of Newton,
corpus obscura
.
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Michael Bohnen, of Newton, wrote: 'Those body parts that are 'rearly seen' are
epidermissing.
'
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Edith Maxwell, of Amesbury, suggested
hide and go seeks
and
invisibits
. Diane Tosca, of Taunton, came up with
hidey-bits
and explained whence she derived it: 'Being a 'Monty Python' fan, I thought of
naughty bits
for those parts of our anatomy that are difficult to see.'
Naughty
itself entered our language around 1400, when it described the state of being very poor — that is, having nothing, or naught. By the end of the century, it also meant 'morally bad' (funny how people connect those two qualities); by a century after that, the meaning encompassed 'promiscuous' and such. And by a century after that, it came to include merely 'mischievous' (a 1633 citation reads 'A
naughty
child is better sick than whole' — that's horrible!). Not until about 1972, the learned lexicographers of the Oxford English Dictionary discovered, did anyone — indeed, Graham Chapman of 'Monty Python'
—
think to combine the word with
bits
, to refer to you know what.
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Judith Englander, of South Strafford, Vt., borrowed a colloquial name from the 'Ceratopogonidae family of insects' to suggest that 'those elusive body parts could be called
no-see-ums.
' She added she doesn't 'really want to see-um unless absolutely necessary!' John Michaels proposed
no-see-ums
too
.
And Kelly Ash, of Melrose, seems to have felt much the way Judith did when she proposed
whywouldyawannas
and announced: 'Not only would I rather not see my
whywouldyawannas
, but I sure don't want a photo out there!'
Given the subject, I had been bracing myself for an onslaught of off-color options, but everyone showed admirable restraint. The responses got no smuttier than 'my
be-hides
,' from John Kjoller, of Sandwich, and
unscenities
or
unseenities
, from David Raines, of Lunenburg.
I did, though, get a surprise geographical reference. Wilma Kassakian, of Newton, wrote: 'How about Australia,' because of ''the Outback' and the continent's nickname, 'Down Under'?' That's subtle, if no doubt baffling to the uninitiated — which might well be a plus. 'Honey, let's excuse ourselves from our hosts for a few minutes. After our hike, we need to check that there isn't a tick in
Australia
.' That's just got to win bragging rights.
Now Geoff Patton, of Ashland, writes: 'We need a word for when you accidentally put a recyclable item in the trash or vice versa. (I am thinking this should be a noun, like a type of error.) I, at least, do this a lot!'
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Send your ideas for Geoff's word to me at barbara.wallraff@globe.com by noon on Friday the 13th, and kindly tell me where you live. Responses may be edited. And please keep in mind that meanings in search of words are always welcome.
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