Ever hear a word or expression that you just immediately love, and after you hear it once, it resonates every time you hear it. Unless of course, it gets over exposed and then all the joy is sucked from the word and you wonder if you ever really cared for it at all.
When John Tavner (Michael Dorman) sings “The janky plan begins today” in season 2 of Patriot, the word nestled in my brain and I knew I had a new love.
In case you didn’t pick the definition up form the Patriot reference, The Urban Dictionary defines it as an “adjective used to describe a person, place or thing which is questionable, fucked up, wrong, strange, broken down, undesirable, and/or just some thing you can’t think of another word for.” It has been in parlance for a score of years – and yet it was new to me.
Similar sound, the word hinky also has some appeal. It can actually be found in the Oxford Dictionary, and is defined as an adjective (of a person) who is dishonest or suspect, or (of an object) that is unreliable. Apparently it has been circulating since the 50s. How did I not know this word until recently?
Do not worry Janky, you still have my heart.
Maybe it has something to do with who you first hear a word from. Here, obviously film and television have a lot to answer for in terms of introducing or popularizing words. Like the many words we owe to Shakespeare, the words unleashed by the entertainment media onto eager minds and ears of the world can subsequently be used for good – or evil. Juno reminded me of my love for the word “shenanigans”, and “stink eye”. Ghost Busters launched the usage of the word “toast” (as in Bill Murray’s “this chick is toast” ) to mean something or someone is defunct. Perhaps you don’t reference Mind -Meld in your everyday conversations, but I have used this Star Trek Spockism to explain when I’m thinking the same thing as someone else on a deep existential level about something like the Quality Street Chocolate flavours that should be retired (Strawberry and Orange) or the intrinsic value of the printed book.
ON the negative end of the spectrum are expressions such as the word “nimnul”. My mother would have spelled it nimnu, and an expression that made its way into conversation thanks to the 70’s sitcom Mork and Mindy. Mork referred to useless idiots as nimnuls. While for a brief period, due to the borrowed shine from Robin Williams’ brilliance, the usage was ironic and au courrant, all too soon it trickled down to my Mom, who continued to use the expression long after it ‘s best before date.
More recently, topping the list of words that should be retired at once, and with prejudice, is the word “unpacked”. The first time I heard someone say, “let me unpack that yada yada (complicated idea) for you” I though, how clever. So did every interviewer and or motivational speaker on the planet. Let us now pack this word back up again for a hundred years until the word can be used wisely again.
To be continued.
Jennings' Pennings 