Saturday, November 07, 2015

Alphabet Club: D

They only met online, but it
changed their lives forever
The Alphabet Club is the brainchild of Serendipitous Jo and Chiara of the Grey Tail. You can read about it here, but the short answer is that each month a group of stitchers will talk about words specific to our languages (dialects, regionalisms), often related in some way to our stitching. You're invited.


Dololly: Before there was the Star Detailor and the Tail Catcher there was the Dololly. (It is no longer produced, which is a shame since mine is in such poor shape.) There were stories that the name was a synonym for "thingamajig" or "watchamacallit," but I have found no evidence of this in any dictionaries. The closest you will come up with is "doolally," which in British English means crazy. Anyway, where I'm from a thing of unspecified object is a "doohickey."


The very first dololly I had, which was unfortunately left on a plane in 2004, had a nice heft to it. When I replaced that one, the new one seemed kind of underweight and the wire was easier to push out of shape. And that has certainly happened over the last few years.


My other word is "dude." I'm sure with American movies being exported around the world this is one that is showing up in other people's Englishes. In America, it's more of an Angeleno word which is part of the reason that the dude is called the dude. (We were in L.A. when I started writing the blog.) It's also the word I use to get the attention of men I don't know, like if a guy drops something in the street. The dude thinks it's impolite, but I figure it's less polite to let him drop his thing and walk away while I try to think of a better word to call him.


In our house the dude sometimes passes the dololly, especially if I'm driving him doolally.

5 comments:

Robin said...

Cute post. Now I will look for my dololly.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

My male colleague sometimes calls customers his own age "dude" but it sounds ridiculous from me, I stick to Sir for most people. If I wanted to attract someone's attention I'd say "excuse me!".
I'd quite like a doololly or a detailer, it would be a great way to use the last mm of every thread. I hate having to cut a new length for just one more stitch!

Beth W said...

Ah, I love this. How have I never heard the term doolally? I think that should be folded right into the vernacular. And I'm a firm believe in the power of dude. It conveys a sense of relaxed trust between the speaker and the recipient of said title.

Brigitte said...

Oh great words.
And now I need a dololly, I didn't even know that this tool exists. But that's normal when you live in a cross stitch desert, lol.

Unknown said...

I've always just used a needle threader.