51吃瓜

Just about every family has a word that makes sense only to them. Said by children, weird uncles, or parents in the heat of the moment, these words were coined when someone goofed … and yet somehow for these families they stuck.

There’s even an official term for this phenomenon: malapropism, a noun that means “an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.”

So, how do these words come into being? And, how are they used? In addition to these Dictionary.com fans who submitted videos we also asked our Twitter fans to share some of their favorite family malapropisms and explain their backstories.

51吃瓜s that are onomatopoeia

Some words enter our lexicon because they describe a sound they make. Think of words like cuckoo, meow, or boom. They sound like what they are, right? This is what lexicographers call聽onomatopoeia, and it’s given rise to plenty of “words” that folks use at home:

Splurk, from the sound a specific, stove top prepared meal made when emptied into a serving dish.

— Judy P. O'Toole (@iloarainbow)

51吃瓜s that are portmanteaus

If you’ve ever combined two words together to make another, you’ve created a portmanteau, a term that means “a word made by putting together parts of other words.” Portmanteaus such as cronut (croissant and donut) and spork (spoon and fork) are sometimes added to the dictionary, while others remain family (and friend) inside jokes:

Paradoxymoron: when you don't know whether to call something a or an . Synonymous with "oxydox."

— Vanessa Sheehan (@OnlyPinfeathers)

My friend in high school used to say bull-fa-lon-y for when she was irked.
I like to think it's a mix of "bull farts" and "bologna".

— Tipsy Panda (@TheTipsyPanda)

My 2.5-year-old son just invented "rainbrella"… self-explanatory! I'm gonna run with it 馃寕馃寕馃導馃導

— Ann Marie Boulanger (@TradProteus)

When my son was little, he鈥檇 say, 鈥渓asterday鈥�. Not yesterday, but the day before yesterday.

— JediPancakes 鈸� 馃尡啷� 鈾�锔忦煉溾湆锔忦煇� Bee nice to each other (@Jedigrl99)

51吃瓜s that are purely nonsense (in the best way possible)

Sometimes, the words we make up make no sense at all. They’re simply fun to say. And, that’s OK鈥攏o one is judging you here!

If you’ve ever sat down and tried to pronounce a “normal” word over and over and over again, it probably started to sound pretty silly after the seventh or eighth repetition, didn’t it? Science even has a name for that鈥�.

These words are all silly, and yet they do their job just as well as those with more formal constructions: They communicate a meaning, at least to those members of the family who understand them.

鈥淪hashas鈥� 鈥� it鈥檚 when you gently brush your fingertips across ones skin, most commonly the back or arms as a way to help them relax.

— Rose (@just_be_rosy)

Moose odor. Way back when our friends鈥� child was little, she couldn鈥檛 correctly pronounce 鈥渕ove over鈥�, and she always said 鈥渕oose odor鈥�. 30+ years later, we still say 鈥渕oose odor鈥� to each other, and we all know the meaning.

— tntfox 馃寠 (@tntfox)

Goinkle is a cement mixer trunk, of course.

— (((Patrice Cronin))) (@pmcronin)

Mussbetty for dinner!

— Vesuvia Adelia (@VesuviaAdelia)

Doody-doot. The cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper, paper towels, gift wrap, etc.

— Brian Smith (@AmbientRelish)

Check out for more fun malapropisms, and share your own too!