Recently I have edited and published a couple of articles regarding the problems IT pros may have to deal with now that Daylight Saving Time is arriving three weeks earlier this year and lasting a week longer in the Fall. (One for Windows and one for Linux. Mac OS X is on the way.)

During the editing process I became aware that the correct term for the legislated event is Daylight Saving Time. My entire life I was lead to believe by my family, mainly by my mother and father, that the event was named Daylight Savings Time. Not much of a difference granted, and in the grand scheme I think either form communicates the thing it needs to communicate. However, it got me to wondering about other phrases my family localized during my youth. Many of them I have out-grown and are lost and forgotten, but I still wonder about how many remain in my lexicon.

Of course some of the coined terminology my father still uses are classic malapropisms in the Archie Bunker, Norm Crosby tradition and not phrases I repeat in normal conversation. However, my brothers and I think they are humorous and give Dad some grief over them on occasion. To share just a few:

Actual word or phrase

My father’s take

Rottweiler

Muttweiler

Ear muffs

Ear gruffs

Grits

Griffs

I know there are more, and I’m going to have to start writing them down so they can be shared with future generations. Do you have family-only turns of phrase that are peculiar or otherwise amusing? What about local phrases? Maybe something particular to the company you work for?