keepin it in the family

If you haven't been reading my sister-in-laws blog, you should start. this latest entry about my family's made up words was especially hysterical so i chose to reblog (that's an actual term) it:

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Lost in Translation
Last night, Husband and I were watching the Roast of Cheech and Chong (quality family programming). Tom Arnold stood up to do his bit and I pondered (out loud) why his tongue looked bright yellow. Husband replied, "He was sucking on a lossenger, I think he has a sore throat."

Me: A what?
Him: A lossenger.
Me: A LOZENGE?
Him: No, a lossenger.
Me: Seriously honey, I think it's called a lozenge.

This went on for a while. He was a steadfast and worthy opponent. This discussion/argument ended the way many of ours do. He said, "Call my mom."

And so I did.I told her I had a sore throat, and I wanted to suck on a soothing drop of some sort. She recommended . . . . a lossenger.His father stood valiantly behind the blood line and also swore allegiance to "lossenger"

My sister-in-law wasn't picking up her phone.I called her husband, who I figured I could count on for some intellectual back-up that Husband's bloodline had, in fact, made up this word. He was in class.

With no actual human support. I went to the internet. No valid search results for "lossenger." Or even "losenger." (With the exception of a few folks posting on chat sites . . . but their intelligence and history of proper use of the English language could not be verified.)

I finally found an entry for “Lozenger” . . . . that reported it "is an archaic spelling still in use in a few American dialects. It is occasionally mistaken for a singular form of “lozenges.” The standard spelling is 'lozenge.'"

The site was titled "Common Errors in English Usage" and is based on a book published by a English professor from Washington State University. Apparently one of the few archaic American dialects that still uses "lozenger" is that of Husband's family. I suppose I can let them have this one on a technicality.

(as an aside: when I ran the spell-checker before posting this entry, the word "lossenger" - and all of its various spellings, came up as incorrect. Hmm.)