So the term “jawn” has been officially considered to be added to the dictionary. It’s a term common in Philadelphia and parts of eastern PA, and defined as something, or several things, which one cannot put a specific name to. I don’t really think we have run out of nouns, but we are developing so many new things that it’s hard to get the word out to everybody at once. If you don’t know what it is, it’s jawn.
Whatever happened to whatchamacallit or thingamabob , or doohickey? I guess they are just so yesterday as to be out of style today. I have yet to see something to which I would say, “What is that jawn?” Or maybe I’m not getting it right.
I recently read about the exciting lives of people who work in the offices of dictionary researchers. They don’t socialize much: they simply contemplate the purest meaning of words for 40 hours a week. A stranger entering that workplace would probably ask, “What’s this jawn about?” The answer would be, “Shh!”
Well, enough about jawn. I promise to have something more defined to say next week.
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