URBAN DICTIONARY

There is an Urban dictionary which will send a word daily to its subscribers, for free. It is always amazing to me that words pop up daily that are so expressive. One of them is UDI (Unidentified Drunken Injury). Another recent one is that the country is in the grip of Obamania!

Should you hear someone say 'udder warmer'...you may not quickly guess that it refers to 'condom'. Another concept is a B Dinkadink. One must be careful not to confuse it with a B Donkadonk.

Apparently the English language isn't expressive enough and new words are constantly being invented. I don't know if they are universal or limited to specific urban populations. Many people have their own foreign languages to converse with in public to have a private conversation. My sister and I could do that on the subway and in stores, in Greek. Sometimes foreign words can be embarrassing. The Greek word for lentils sounds obscenely close to someone saying, intercourse (more common word, actually, for this function)-yes.

That ploy backfired for a couple once in England as I was in a subterranean area waiting for a lift. People were all standing before one as it was apparently the second was out of order. A couple standing before the one out of service were saying, in Greek, "we will stand at the front of this one and pretend we don't know it is out of order and then we can squeeze right in before all these people when the other comes." Since I understood them, I motioned with a sweeping arm when the lift arrived, for them to pass before me, saying in Greek, "After you". They had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed but moved in front of me anyway.

Having recently read that 1 in 7 living in the United States is foreign born, I wonder why we have to press one to speak in English. I know there are lots of places for which one presses 2 to speak in Spanish, but how many more numbers must we add in the future. It is difficult enough that there is a whole dictionary of shortcuts in chat, writers who speak in archaic English or with such erudite words as to need a dictionary handy to read them. Be ahead of the curve by checking out the Urban Dictionary.