According to the Free Dictionary , Stut: v. i. 1. To stutter.
Not according to my sisters and me. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but one day one of us referred to our dinner as "Stut." Mom went ballistic, which was not an often seen condition of our mother. We hastened to assure her that (whoever it was) meant that Stut meant "good food." (snicker, snicker, snicker). Mom wasn't convinced and banned the word. Of course, that elevated it in importance. I suspect Mom was also snickering to herself. Stut became a fixture in our FamilySpeak.
I remember it all too well. Kelly - then known as Fliss, which was short for Phyliss - was at the learning to talk stage and was into creating her own words, one of which was "stut" (rhymes with foot). Mom did indeed object to it, and we all solemnly assured her that it meant "good food". At least, that's what Kelly/Fliss said it meant. (snicker, snicker) Thereafter, when served something tasty, we would say, "Boy, Mom, this is some really good stut." Which technically is redundant, but just saying "this is some stut" just doesn't sound right. Kelly also came up with "fookah an' a boone", which means "fork and a spoon". I still call it a fookah sometimes. Especially when I'm using it to eat my stut.
ReplyDeleteMom was going through perimenopause and a lot of odd things annoyed her during the next few years. She got over it by the time I was about 10. Good thing, given the hyperverbal maniac I turned into from about that age. (While I no longer made up words, by 14 I was using words nobody, including my English teachers, had ever heard of). As for mom, she became totally cool. I remember being about 15 and walking through the hardware store with her, the 2 of us snickering at all the funny tool names such as "stud finder."
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