Happy-Clappy

When I left the chiropractor today he smiled and said, “I’ll always think of you as the bee lady”.  “Okey dokey!  I’m good with that”, I replied, pleased that he tacked lady on the end. Thinking okey dokey made me think of those kinds of sayings.  Like zig-zag, heebie-jeebie, nitty-gritty, bee-knees, (couldn’t leave out that one) and eency-weency.  What exactly are these phrases and where do they come from?  I hit google.

Turns out when we coin these phrases it’s all because we get enjoyment from word play. These phrases are referred to as “reduplication” and apparently have been in existence since at least the 1600’s. The words that make up these reduplicated idioms often have little meaning in themselves and only appear as part of a pair. In other cases, one word will allude to some existing meaning and the other half of the pair is added for effect or emphasis.  The use of such terms originated with the Old English and are still being used today.  The phrase “willy-nilly” is said to be over a thousand years old.  A few of the newer reduplications are “bling-bling”, “hip-hop”, and “boob-toob”.  I’m guilty of throwing these sayings out occasionally – are you?  Word play can be fun and today I had such a good time reading about it I ran out of time for breakfast, so I whipped up a smoothie.

I have peaches in the freezer from last summer and I’ll be refilling my freezer in the coming months with this years crop, so I need to use them up.  Of course I’m constantly looking for uses for honey and it was a  perfect addition to the peaches, yogurt and milk I used for my smoothie.  It made a delicious and filling breakfast drink.

Next week should be the last time I see the chiropractor – hopefully forever.  He snapped me back into shape rather quickly after my sacroiliac joint decided to freeze up.  It was without a doubt the most painful experience I can recall.  I’m remarkably better thanks to the doc and if he always remembers me as the “bee lady” well I’m just happy-clappy about that.

Enjoy!

Peach-Honey Smoothie

1/2 cup of plain yogurt
1/2 cup low-fat milk
2 tsp. honey
1 cup fresh frozen sliced peaches

Add all ingredients to blender and purée until smooth.  Makes one large serving or two small servings.

Info on phrases found @www.phrases.org