Dude! There's my lexicon!

I was thinking the other day about all the odd words and turns of phrases that I use, and why I use them. Here’s a list of some of my favorite words, and where I first remember picking them up. Most of these are from movies and TV shows.

In no particular order, let’s start with:

Plethora. Got this from an old Rocky and Bullwinkle episode. Something about the Ruby Yacht of Omar Kayyam, which was set on a cruise ship. (the Yacht was an artifact, not a ship). One of the guys used the phrase “plethora of rain,” and all of a sudden, the cartoon went into a quick vocab lesson. An early attempt at getting smarts into cartoons? I’d say so. Every term paper ever written should have at least one use of “plethora.”

Cool. I grew up in the 80’s. I never remember a time that I didn’t use this word. ‘Nuff said.

Dude! Although I never actually saw Dude, Where’s My Car? I picked up the use of this word after the trailers for the movie came out. I use this like I use cool, but it’s more multipurpose. More like that Superbowl Ad.

Clandestine. An old college joke. For many years, my husband’s e-mail sig file was a quote of mine: “Clandestine is a cool word.”

F*cktard. Picked this up recently from an episode of the Wingin’It Podcast. Thanks, Debbie!

Behemoth. A conversation between a co-worker and me many years ago. A word that’s not used nearly enough.

Metric Crap-ton. My preferred word for something very large. I don't like the word Ginormous, so I use this instead.

Pronoun Trouble. Apparently, I picked this up from Daffy Duck in an old Looney Toons episode. If you have to pick one phrase to adopt from this list, this is it. Terribly useful in the workplace. The whole concept of pronoun trouble can save your sanity, especially when your co-workers talk to you like you can read their minds.

Wonky. Used in The Norm comic strip, a strip that I used to love. Still do, but it’s no longer free or in the local papers.

Wiggy. Picked this up from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show. I use it like wonky, but less frequently.

Shiny, gorram, techy, tussle, palaver, and others: Pretty much any word, phrase or quote from Firefly I can and have incorporated into my vocabulary. What can I say, I’m an obsessed Browncoat.

Crap on a Crap cracker. Uttered by podcaster Mur Lafferty. Less of a swear word than an F-bomb, so good in situations where swearing is frowned upon.

Made of Awesome. Also used by Mur and assimilated by me.

Brilliant/Fantastic. I was saying this before I started watching Dr. Who. I have some British friends who use the term, so I picked it up from them.

W00t! Well who isn’t using w00t! these days in their written communications? More people should say it aloud--it's fun! Try it!

I can has? Oh Noes! WANT! and others: This is LOL Cats speech: LOL cats are funnier than the have a right to be. I sometimes use the ungrammatical I can haz and other phrases from the LOL Cats.

Groovy: From Army of Darkness. I don’t say it as much anymore, because I find it silly. Like any of these other words and phrases are any less silly. Just color me logically inconsistent.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? I don’t know where I picked this up, but I’ve been using it over the past year.

Oh my Stars. Again, not sure where I picked this up, but fairly recent. During a time I was trying to swear less. For the record, that time has passed.

I'd love to hear from others about what wierd words they use and where they picked it up. Acronyms, abbreviations, it's all good.