William Shakespeare is credited with the invention of 1,700 words (or at least his plays are the first known printed use thereof). Jennie Alexander can be credited with just a few less – and we even left some of them in the third edition of “Make a Chair from a Tree” (if their meanings could be easily gleaned from context). Below are just a handful of the interesting neologisms she coined and a few actual (but rarely used) words and phrases she uttered (and wrote) on a regular basis. Who knows? Maybe in 450 years, everyone will be saying “dingus” instead of “fixture.”
Baby Jerome (n.) Someone who crawls under the furniture (to look at joinery).
clacker (n.) A depth stop made from a chopstick that attaches to a drill bit shaft. It clacks when it hits the work.
clean-out chisel (n.) A chisel with a curve or angle at the bottom for cleaning out a mortise (like a gooseneck chisel, but shop-made).
dingus (n.). Any shop-made jig that gets used over and again. For example, the IYFLL (see below) is a dingus.
dotter (n). A thin stick with screws through it, used to simultaneously mark all mortise locations (or mark whatever you’ve laid out with said screws). Conscripted from the turning world.
furshlugginer (adj.) A piece of junk.
GABG (n.) The Glowing Acrylic Bevel Gauge. A dingus made from green acrylic. Used in sighting legs to the proper angle.
gixerdee (adj.) Something that’s out of truth – synonym for cattywampus (which she used interchangeably with gixerdee).
Goldilocksing (adj.), Choosing the best compromise between alternatives, such as the size of a rung mortise.
IYFLL (n). In Your Face Line Level. A dingus that hooks onto a drill-bit extender to help you keep the bit level.
knocker-docker (n.) a wooden mallet.
Miss Moist-Bone Dry (n.) One of many Jennie’s many pseudonyms.
Mouldy figs (n.) People who listen to early Jazz; Jennie (who was a jazz musician) appropriated it as a term for hand-tool purists.
ovality (n.) The quality of being oval.
spruck (n.) The sound a piercer or spoon bit makes while tearing up the wood fibers as it makes its way around a hole.
truncadon (n.) The remainder of a billet after the sapwood and bark has been rived from it – i.e. it has been truncated into its useful wood.
toothy critters (n.) A metal planing stop with sharp teeth.
— Fitz
p.s. Anyone who spent time with Jennie has more to add – above are the just the words/phrases that Larry Barrett, Peter Follansbee, Christopher Schwarz and I could jot down off the top of our heads. So if you have others, please add them in the comments!
This is pure awesomeness. I see wall art dictionary in my future.
“Woodpucky” – greenwood worker.
“Knocker Docker” that weirdo, all-wood mallet. Sometimes really big, sometimes small.
“Furshlugginer” is of Yiddish derivation; I grew up hearing my parents and grandparents use it. Also means crazy or weird when applied to a person. Sorry about that; an excellent word but not a Jennie-ism.
“and a few actual (but rarely used) words and phrases she uttered (and wrote) on a regular basis.”
I recall seeing it in Mad magazine decades ago. A fine source as far as I am concerned 🙂
I heard furshlugginer in PA Dutch country from Amish guys I worked with,( first meaning) so it’s probably not exclusively Yiddish or Mad Magazine. I heard Mashugana or mashuganer for crazy growing up around NYC. That’s definitely Yiddish.
Can’t wait for the book.
Was also often used in the early days of Mad Magazine.
In my younger years, I was a very Mouldy Fig in the jazz sense of the term — in my oh–but-not-at-all-talibanic teenage view, the only real music was jazz, and no good jazz had been created since 1929 or thereabouts … These days, I’ve at least scraped some of the mould off’f m’fig when it comes to music, and ‘though I definitely lean strongly in the hand tool direction when it comes to woodworking, I don’t think I’d call myself anything like a purist.
Oh, and I don’t say dingus. I say himpagimpa. But then, I’m from the South. The South of Sweden, that is.
Cheers,
Mattias
Completely forgot to add that this book is very much on my shopping list for when it is published.
Same here! Though I might again have to order it from Sweden. Like Kitchen Think (ordered today, thanks @Mattias for the link to hyvlar.se)
And dingus is a completely normal word 😉
I look forward to this joining my very bedraggled 1st edition.
I had the privilege of making and using an IYFLL dingus and a dotter dingus this past week in Travis Curtis’ shop. We also used knocker-dockers and clean-out chisels. I’m just hoping no Baby Jeromes show up to judge my bottom. 🙂
Looking forward to the book!
This site might be of interest – furniture from hand worked “riven oak’
https://www.adrianmccurdy.co.uk/benches-411511.html
I wonder who coined the word neologism.
To Knocker Docker or not to Knocker Docker. That is the question.
Clacker means something a bit different over here.
I came here to say this.
I just looked it up… I’ve never before heard that usage!
This was funny to me because I had an old boss who would call me a “dingus” whenever i made him mad. And my dad used to use the word cattywampus a lot. Although my favorite word he used was ramshackle.
I believe I remember Follansbee saying how JA referred to chairmaking measures as “ an exact approximation “
Here in st louis it is commonly bastardized to “cattylumpus,” which by substituting lump for wamp increases its pejorative power
My kids & I call our Alexa devices “dingus.”