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**Colorful Words***

Posted by ESC on August 05, 2000

In Reply to: **Colorful Words*** posted by Vidhya on August 04, 2000

: Hi all, would someone tell me what these words mean?Twerpy, butter bing butter boom(how do u use it?), MOJO, pipsqueak, pitty-pat(teeny-weeny?)

: Tell me soon folks...I'm waiting :0)

OK. I'll give it a whirl.

1. TWERP - "This word for an insignificant objectionable little person may well be an eponym. The Englishman in question, according to several authors, is T.W. Erp, who attended Oxford in about 1911.Another theory (for the origin of the word) has twerp deriving from Danish 'tver,' perverse; still another is that it is a variation of 'twit." From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997)

2. BATTA BING BATTA BOOM -- (I'm not sure of the spelling.) I've only heard this said by Italian guys in movies. I believe it's a simulation of a drum roll that is used after a comedian delivers his or her punch-line. So when a person says "batta bing batta boom," he is using the phrase to emphasize something that has been said or something that has happened.

3. MOJO - "Originally a magical charm. By extension, a source of personal magic that one can tap into, enabling you to work magic on something or to put somebody under your spell. 'You got yo mojo workin, but it ain gon work on me!' Derived from moco'o, literally, 'medicine man,' in the Fula language of West Africa." From Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner by Geneva Smitherman. (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994) A more extensive discussion of root doctors and mojos is in "Blue Roots: African Folk Magic of the Gullah People" a book about a group of people South Carolina by Roger Pinckney. (Llewllyn Publications, 1998). "The root doctor probably got his name from the herbal origins of his practice.But 'the root' may not contain any herbs at all. The root is a charm, a jomo, a gris-gris, a hand, meant to be carried, worn, chewed, or buried, depending on its use and intent."

4. PIPSQUEAK - "By 1900 American hoboes were contemptuously calling young punk hoboes pip-squeaks, perhaps from the little pips on playing cards, or the pips that were small seeds, and 'squeak' for their squeaky adolescent voices. Although these derivations are only guesses, 'pipsqueak' did mean a little, worthless, insignificant person in hobo talk, whence it passed into general use. The term passed into British English by 1910." Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997)

5. PITTY-PAT & TEENY-WEENY - I'll have to get back to you on these. People talk about "hearing the pitter-patter of little feet." Meaning the sound of children in the house. Other than that, I don't know the origins. There is a children's story about a "teeny tiny little woman."

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