Our own Tim Dowling today highlights the work of the English project, which is collecting as much vernacular as it can - or what it calls "kitchen table lingo".
People have all kinds of different words for things - often just within their families - or use very personalised nicknames for objects, people and places (not dissimilar to a discussion that Jason Kottke started a while back about intentionally mispronounced words, spinning off this fascinating little article by Grant Barrett).
But the big topic of debate is one that should be near and dear to your hearts, just as it is mine - the remote control.
According to web forums, "clicker" is extremely common, as is "flipper", "changer" and the rather charming "the buttons". "Zapper" is often used, while "Frank" (geddit?) is a by no means isolated derivative.
There are expressions directly derived from "remote control" such as "the mote", or "the trolls". "Hoofer-doofer" sounds like an odd one-off, but lots of people seem to claim it and it leads the pack of similar words such as "doofla" and "do-flicky". "Onner-offer" is apparently rare.
Personally I tend to call it the "tweaker". But there are added problems, as remotes proliferate... do you give them all different names? Or do you just refer to the "TV tweaker", the "DVD tweaker" and so on?
It's a minefield, I tell you.
