Mollie's Word Journal

For my blog post, I decided to look at some words that my family has been using for as long as I can remember, but I've never taken the time to examine.

1. Uff da

Exclamation: /uwf-də/

The first place I looked for an explanation on "uff da" was the Oxford English Dictionary, but came up with nothing. So, naturally, I called my mom. She picked it up from her mom who heard it from her mother who heard it from her mother from Norway.  It's used in Scandinavia as an exclamation, like when you open the fridge and smell something foul, you might utter and "uff da!" in disgust. It's close to other exclamations like "oy vey" and "ay caramba."

Next I did a general Google search and found a very interesting (if not slightly silly) article on lawzone.com.  The article explains that "uff da" is often subbed in where a vulgar or explicit word might be used.  They noted that in Norway, Charlie Brown says "uff da!" instead of the classic "good grief!"

After some Googling I went to a translating website, and put in the individual pieces to be translated to English.  "Uff" has definition, and I presume it's just an utterance, like "ugh." "Da," on the other hand, means "then."  Going back to the refrigerator example, you would smell something foul, look away in disgust and say "UFF!" In a polite way of dealing with this disgust, you would add "then" as if to suggest there's something to be done.

Also interesting to note, is that the proud Midwestern brewing company, the New Glarus Brewing Co., has a German Bock beer brewed in the Reinheitsgebot tradition called "Uff-da."

2. Nix

Verb: /nɪks/

"Nix that," was thrown around my household left and right. Whether it was referring to an attitude or piece of clothing,  in a family of sisters, there were plenty of things to be nixed.

The OED defines nix as an American slang verb meaning to cancel, reject, forbid, or deny a thing or a person.  This definition fits with my family history.

The word "nix" was first found in 1903 in The People You Know by George Ade. In the years since, it has been used in the same manner.  Other notable examples in the OED include a headline from The Tucson Daily Citizen ("Nude bathing nixed") and J. Brady's Stone of Heart ("Kilmartin would have him nixed off the list").

3. Pig Latin

 Noun: /ˈpɪɡ ˌlætn/

When my older sisters would make fun of me while the family was in the car, they would speak in Pig Latin. Pig Latin is a made-up language in which the speaker drops the first letter of a word, and adds it as a suffix ending in "-ay." So to use the above word as an example, if I were to say "nix the biker boots," to my sister, in Pig Latin it would be "ix-nay  e-thay  iker-bay  oots-bay." It takes a trained ear to pick up, which is why it was used against me in my youth.

Again I headed to the OED, and found that the phrase "pig latin" was originally used to describe incorrect Latin.  In 1869, the phrase "I had plenty of ammunition in reserve, to say nothing, Tom, of our pig Latin" Putnam's Mag. So if someone spoke poorly or spoke in a strange manner, someone would be likely to criticize his pig Latin. 

It isn't until the second definition that we get to the modern day play language. The OED defines it as "an invented version of a language, specifically an altered form of English used as a sort of code especially by children."  This definition was first applied to an article in 1896, however my favorite example is the performance of Hamlet in pig Latin as cited by the Ottawa Citizen. 

Sources: http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/uffda.htm, http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/view/Entry/127426?rskey=1jtNFm&result=3&isAdvanced=false#eid, http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/view/Entry/143708?redirectedFrom=pig+latin#eid