Twitterpated about Wordplay

One of my passions in life is words. No surprise there, for someone who spends most of his waking hours monkeying around with them.

What I really love is a well-turned phrase. Nothing gets me twitterpated as much as when I hear someone blurt out the perfect description of a situation.

For those who don’t remember, twitterpated itself was the word wise old Friend Owl used to describe love in the Walt Disney film, “Bambi.”

To me, it’s a perfect word.

One day at work, several of us were puzzling over a project, putting the finishing touches on it, when a co-worker sized it all up: “I like the doneness of it.”

That phrase summarized how we all felt about it. We had worked on it for weeks and it was as good as it was going to get.

My all-time favorite phrase has to do with dogs and what they eat. I use it to describe things that, well, just don’t look good. Years ago, another co-worker came into the room where several of us were sitting. She was fussing about the mess someone had made. “That room looks like a dog’s breakfast.”

And, in fact, it did.

We all have our favorite sayings. Some are nearly universal. My kids use “sweet” and “dude” and “like” more than any other words, but they really don’t use phrases as much as we did when we were young.

Radio disc jockeys had the best. On WIBG-AM in Philadelphia, where I spent my teen years, a DJ named Hy Lit always said, “Hy don’t lie.”

One of his compatriots, Jerry Blavat, a.k.a. “the Geeter with the Heater” and the “Big Boss with the Hot Sauce,” coined a new phrase about every 10 minutes.

Of course, every kid in school would take turns trying out these phrases, much to the consternation of our teachers, who saw themselves as the only remaining protectors of the English language.

Other phrases far pre-date the 1960s, however. For example, you’ve probably heard and even used the phrase “old goat,” as in “He’s just an old goat.”

That dates back to colonial American days, when older gentlemen wore wigs on important occasions. Some of the wigs were made of goat hair — hence the “old goat” reference.

And you’ve surely heard the phrase, “put your best foot forward.” Colonial women became twitterpated when a young gentleman  would display a strong calf muscle. The short pants and stockings that were the fashion of the day allowed a young man to “put his best foot forward” and show off his calf. Some men would even wear wooden inserts in their stockings to make their legs appear larger.

Different cultures also have their own expressions. I once was talking with a gentleman who had spent a lot of time in the Cajun country of southern Louisiana. As he prepared to step into his truck and drive away, he turned to me and said, “See y’all awhile ago.”

I’ve never tried to analyze that sentence for grammar and syntax. Why would anyone want to wreck a perfectly good phrase by doing that?