My dad has a habit of picking up random words and making them his catchphrases. He once came across a Jimi Hendrix poster in my brother’s bedroom – entering which is a rarity for other members of the house. Of course, my father had/has no clue who Jimi Hendrix is. To my dad, he’s a guy with a catchy name.
After that, every time my dad was pleased with something or heard some good news, he’d exclaim, “Ooh… Jimi Hendrix!” Especially in conversations with my brother, another rarity in my house. “Jimi Hendrix” became synonymous with “wow!” or “yay!”
The new catchphrase was quite flexible in usage too. For instance, if I gave my father some good news and he wanted to confirm my excitement, he’d simply ask, “Jimi Hendrix?!”
My dad’s a funny guy. Of course, I never tell him I think this.
In 2012, when my brother graduated from Vancouver Film School, we went to attend the ceremony and make a holiday of the trip. When I learnt that Vancouver had a Jimi Hendrix Shrine, I simply had to make sure we went there – as a family – and introduce my dad to the person responsible for his favourite catchphrase.
I actually agree with your father. I don’t think you should tie down a Word and force it to take on only one job.
If possible, a Word should take on multiple part-time jobs apart from its main 9-5 one. I mean, what’s time to a Word, right? Does it have things to do on its day off? :p
I used to collect random words and use them as my catchphrase too. Japanese words like “banzai”. It literally means “long life” but I used “banzai” when I want to say something is totally cool. Like “Japan is totally banzai!”
But I gave up that practice when I started befriending people who could speak Japanese properly.
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Hahaha.. Well that’s one way of looking at things! And “banzai” story by the way… Hahaha.. Imagine if you could get your Japanese speaking friends to use banzai the way you do!
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