Mamelukes/Mamalukes...A Strange Encounter With Grandpa's Sayings,,,

Guess I'd better begin with a little background because most of you never met my grandfather. 

Grandpa was a man of sayings...if the normal expressions weren't strange enough or cool enough or if a word wasn't interesting enough, he would invent a new way to say it...or he would just take already existing words and use them in new ways...here are just a few examples:


- "Guhgootz" (no idea how to spell this) = silly person

- "figasmockim" = nothing

- "Cut my legs off and call me shorty!" / "Well, I'll be a dirty bird!" / "Octooleibersthrowsa!"  = holy molyy, gee, wow, said when someone is surprised.

- "If you don't have it in the head, you've gotta have it in the feet" = said when someone goes downstairs to look for something and comes up without said something (and in similar situations)

- "If it was a snake it would've bit you" = aka you missed something in plain sight

-"If the horse don't pull you gotta pull the horse" = if something doesn't fall together for you, you have to create it for yourself


- "zert", "guk", "mush", "get the stick; we'll kill it", "My mom gave me a dollar for lunch...what did I do?  I ate the dollar", "Have mercy on Percy", "nonnie", "beddieby", "wimmy wimmy", "Steady Eddie", "the motherless Bears", "sedgie sama", "pooshkoo pooshkoo", "artillary", "Jumpin Jehoshaphat",  "cogitatin'" "fegalatted", "lully", "copacetic", "ready for Freddy", "boogly woogly bug", "gremlins", "poopshun"  (can't define all of them...sorry!)

...And the list goes on...and on...and on.....I cannot even them all!

Anyhow...the point of this post was not simply to reminisce (although that's kind of how it ended up...)

My point was to focus on one specific expression..."mamaluke" - used as in "You're driving like a mamaluke!"

Well yesterday in my Art History class, I think I may have just discovered the actual origin of this word "mameluke".  When France invaded Spain in the War of Independence in 1808, some of the soldiers were of Egyptian descent and were called "mamelukes" (or in Spanish "mamelucos").  While learning this little fact probably does not seem like a big deal to most of you, I had to seriously contain myself or I would have burst out laughing in the middle of class...not even kidding!

I guess it was just a little reminder that Grandpa is watching over his "Miss Mellie".

Peace and Blessings,
Melanie

Spanish Word of the Day: expresion = expression :)