Am 28.11.2014 21:48, schrieb Doctor John:
> For no apparent reason I started to think about words that families use
> amongst themselves that completely confuse everyone else. Actually, I
> lie; the reason was that the Feegle was trying to explain to a colleague
> of mine what he did in school today and he kept using the word
> 'underhay' - colleague totally mystified.
>
> An underhay is a teacher; his first teacher was Miss Underhay so (by his
> logic, all teachers are underhays.
>
> Other words we use:
> Lolo (n.) - any flying machine; a contraction of lietadlo, Slovak for
> aeroplane.
> Wee-Baby (n.) - a children's playground; more often used now for a
> playground used by children younger than the Feegle is now.
> Spell (v.) - any game involving rough play, usually only boys are
> involved except when Ellie (his best friend) is around when she kicks
> sh*t out the rest despite being much smaller.
>
> What u got?

Nothing English that springs to my mind. A few "German" specialties:

Bewohner (n.; spoken "b(e)'wohn(er)"; lit. "occupant [of a flat]") - an 
assisted living caretaker; from "BeWo" = "Betreutes Wohnen" (assisted 
living).

Gelett (n.; spoken "g(e)'let") - any elevated place with a railing, esp. 
any such place obviously designed to be just that.

Gunu (adj.; spoken "'goonoo") - (1) silly; (2) unacceptable for reasons 
to which logic does not apply.

Hüngerer (ASCII: Huengerer; n.; spoken "'hyng(e)r(er)") - pole with a 
hook used to open the trapdoor / extendable ladder combo to the attic.

Spassmacher (n.; spoken "'shpahsmahk(er)" lit. "fun-maker") - any item 
of interest, esp. currently handled by the addressed person; 
thingumajig; gadget. As in, "Gib mir mal den Spassmacher" ("Hand me the 
Spassmacher please").


Well, there are actually a few that can be translated to English:

Nichts getan haben (lit. "to not have done anything") - to have 
unwittingly handled a technical device, esp. computer, in a manner that 
leaves it in a state both undesired and non-obvious to recover from, as 
in "I haven't done anything, again - can you help fix it?"

Der Genscher hat's mir erklärt (lit. "Genscher explained it to me") - a 
phrase indicating that you can't quite explain something, but you've 
heard an explanation from someone you deem competent enough in the 
matter. From an old joke on (then) German Chancellor Helmut Kohl 
involving fellow politician Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Genscher poses a 
riddle which Kohl not only fails to answer, but needs the answer 
explained to him, and even then he utterly misunderstands it. Or 
something along the lines. Can't really remember. But Genscher explained 
it to me.

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