RANDOM: Hey, linguophiles!

[caffienekitty]

There's a word my family has been using for years. I have no idea if it's an actual word, or something specific to my family, but I've used it in conversation locally and people seem to understand it. I tried googling it today to see how it was spelled and nothing turned up under any variation, so I'm asking you guys. ;-)

The word is 'troopsicate' [TROOP-sik-aet]. (Not a clue whether that's how it's spelled or not, I have never seen it written down, only spoken.) The meaning is to roam or wander, with connotations of free-spiritedness and/or mild innocent foolishness and/or looking for playful mischief to get into. EG: "While you were off troopsicating about, I was getting some work done."

I've tried the above spelling, with u's without u's, one o, nothing's turning up under any form. I even tried 'terpsicate' and variations thereon in case the word was rooted in "Terpsichore," the Greek muse of dancing, which would make a whole heck of a lot of sense to me.

Does anyone recognize this word? And if not does anyone have similar rare or 'family/friends only' words?

Comments

[quettalinde.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a family word to me, sorry. I really like it though. It's got a ring to it.

I know my family has similarly rare words, but I only remember two at the moment. "Woppydopter", my sister's first attempt at "helicopter", and "grissebasse" (GREES-uh-baws), which apparently means "piggy" in Danish and gets used to chastise messy eating habits.

[rieyll.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, my family has a bunch of words that seem to only exist in our vocabulary! But the only one I can think off the top of my head right now is 'walingkun' (pronounced WAH-ling-koon). I can't remember where it originated from, but it basically means a crazy/bad/evil person. Like, I'd tell my 5 year old niece to hold my hand if we were at the mall or something, so she wouldn't be taken by any walingkuns.

Someone who's really really unkempt is also a walingkun. My mom would probably say that creepy girl from Family Remains is a walingkun. Or some of those scary looking homeless people types.

[caffienekitty]

What weirds me out is I drop it into random conversation with non-family and people still seem to understand what I'm talking about. Either that or they have no idea and are humouring me.

"Woppydopter", my sister's first attempt at "helicopter", and "grissebasse" (GREES-uh-baws), which apparently means "piggy" in Danish

Hee! Kid language is great! Is your family Danish?

[caffienekitty]

A Walingkun totally sounds like something the Winchesters would hunt. Like a relation of a Wendigo, maybe.

[quettalinde.livejournal.com]

What weirds me out is I drop it into random conversation with non-family and people still seem to understand what I'm talking about.

They likely do. That's one of the nice things about English morphology. It's incredibly easy to make up words that sound and register as English. We know "troop" and "-ate" and assume that "-si/-sic" is a diminutive—or at least, that's how I break it down for myself. I take the meaning as "to walk or hike with an air of merriment or amusement".

Is your family Danish?

Among other things. ;-)

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

I've often used made up words in school (well, with my peers, not the professors, obviously) and I've never had any problem with them understanding what I mean, usually because the neologism is:
a) onomathopeic

b) a mish mash of two real words, and the others wkno those words

c) a bastadization of a real word with a regional bent

I find that if you have the same linguistic background making up new words to add nuances works without problems. If you're trying to express a totally new concept, then you'd have a problem.

[caffienekitty]

*nods* It's hard to express a new concept with a new word, you'd need to explain it everytime you used it.

[(Anonymous)]

I remember talking about this once with you:) We have one in our family--Skewiffy. It pretty much means that everything has gone to hell or been twisted up in some strange fashion. When you can't explain what happened skewiffy covers it pretty well..lol

Hugs
Sharon

[caffienekitty]

Yep. Good word to know.