As I was tidying the library shelves and discovered a dear little book which I hadn’t seen of years. Remember Douglas Adams’ delightful, hilarious book, The Meaning of Liff? He listed words he called toponyms. To describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English word. Adams used the names of English towns etc to describe them. Shoeburyness (“The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat that is still warm from somebody else’s bottom”) and Plymouth (“To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place”). As I giggled my way through the pages I realise there are still many feelings I don’t have a word for.
MY “NO WORD FOR THAT” MOMENTS
Every night I hop joyfully into bed and love that snuggle moment I experience as my head hits the pillow. How glorious in the winter to feel all warm and snuggly? That last wriggle down and the arranging of blankets coming up, and here is the first “I don’t have a word for that!” moment. Snuggly comes close but doesn’t cover the blankets or the wriggling or the fact that we only experience this as we lay down to sleep in a bed. POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS: Verb- To sniddle. To snubble. To bluggle.
OOPS! I FELL ASLEEP
I know you will all know this one too. It’s bedtime you are reading your book or completing a puzzle on your iPad and beginning to feel delightfully dozy. You accidentally dropped off to sleep between lines and experience that jump because you’ve inadvertently shut your eyes and dropped your book or iPad. This is a common experience for which English doesn’t have a verb or word. POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS: Verb- To jutter? To frodge?
WAKE UP! WAKE UP!
I have explained to “He who likes to make stunning statements” that while I am winding down and reading I would prefer him not to chat with me or ask me a question. Still he will be reading something on his iPad and ask , “Gosh, did you read that?” No, I haven’t read that. Instantly I am awake and have to ask “Hm? What didn’t I read?” I don’t think there is a word for that feeling either, you know, that woozy moment between almost asleep and confused awake. POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS: wuzzle, giddle, woozle???
DEEP BREATHLY!
We each have our routines for sleep, unless you’re 13 and can sleep on a footpath. I like to turn over (always on my left side) and let sleep take over. Quietly I start to breathe in as I visualise a wave pulling back and breathing out as I, the wave, mentally crash onto the beach. Surely there should be one word for that sort of going to sleep? Is there a word for that sort of visual breathing? POSSIBLE SUGGESTION: VERB – to visalay? vizeething? nighzing?
COOL ME DOWN QUICKLY
Most women of a certain age will understand this experience too, I am sure. I’m so comfortable, lovely and warm in bed when all of a sudden the heat hits. Hot flashes! I find my legs reaching about as I search for the cold parts of the bed…. no word for those spots is there? SUGGESTIONS: potches, colies, freshies? What about when you suddenly need to flail your legs or arms or both out from under the covers onto the top of the bed. Aarrgghh! Bliss as that coolness washes over you. Heaven! I can’t think of an accurate word for that either. POSSIBLE SUGGESTION: – I felt delightfully scrool. I felt so frarled.
TURN THE PILLOW OVER
I’m laying there so comfortably when suddenly my head grows so hot I feel like it’s going to burst. The only answer is to flip the pillow over onto ‘the cold side’ of the pillow… another word we don’t have, to explain that side of the pillow. POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS: The flool. The Arphew. The Flail.
I’d love to hear your suggestions…