It's a simple question, really, but I am a simple fellow, so I'll ask it anyway: what's your favorite made up number?
I mentioned "umpteen" on a Facebook update earlier today and have already been "countered" with bajillion and gadjillion (and their root, jillion), as well as eleventy, dubbed "the funniest number ever." Hmmmmmm.
I'm sticking with umpteen as my favorite non-number number, but here among my fellow writers, teachers, and poets I hope to learn of many more. Let me hear your number... and let's see if I get umpteen comments!
Can I pick "gobs"? Or is that a collective term and therefore not acceptable?
ReplyDeleteIf it isn't, I will say squidillion.
You can pick "gobs" if you want, though I agree it's not meant to be a specific sounding number. I prefer squidillion. Sounds like it comes from Sponge Bob!
ReplyDeleteMine is actually a monetary amount - but I think it still counts...
ReplyDeletea dollar three eighty-nine....
Squinty - "There are squinty-four of them," she said.
ReplyDeleteI generally use gazillion.
ReplyDeleteOooh - I nearly forgot this one! My daughter, when she was tiny, referred to the largest amount of money she could think of as "a hilly-milly dollars!"
ReplyDeleteOn the "gobs" front, I've always liked my younger son's favorite, which is "heaping wadges" (not sure that I've spelled "wadges" correctly, I'll have to ask). Sometimes it's increased to "great heaping wadges."
ReplyDeleteButtloads? Or is that too inappropriate? ;)
ReplyDeleteWe say fitty for fifty and hundy for hundred sometimes!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteMy name is Regina and I just signed on to follow your blog. Anywho, the answer to your question... Heaps. Yes, heaps. Have an awesome day! -peace ps I like the sound of thruppance, too. Not sure if that counts!
Last year, when my daughter was still a lovely 2-year-old, she made up a number that our family loves to use. Whenever she would hear someone ask what time it was, she would yell, "Forty-ten!" It did morph into general number usage, and not just time-specific, so that's our crew's favorite made up number. ;)
ReplyDelete"eleventy" is pretty hilarious. I like "gazillion."
ReplyDeleteOh, these are great! Thruppence should be real, and eleventy (and its variant, eleventeen) have always held a soft spot in my heart. And I love the kid-words that become part of the everyday conversation within a family (usually to the point where strangers cast odd looks because you use the numbers without even thinking about it).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, from my Facebook friends come these other made up numbers - squat, squillions, and 867-5309. Nice!
Oh, eleventy is a great one. I might have to use it in a picture book! My son counts 11, 12, 13, 14, 14-1, 14-2, 14-3. Pretty original.
ReplyDeleteEleventy is a great one. The one I usually use most often is "bajillion," though.
ReplyDeleteEver since Saturday Night Live (I think it was SNL - or was it Jon Stewart?) made up a news story about Bush misunderstanding the word "Brazillian" (they had him ask, "How many is a brazillion?") that word has entered our family lexicon. It not only means mulitple gazillions, but it lends a certain dumb-as-a-post patina to it all.
ReplyDeleteI think I use bajillion a lot, but I know when I am being hyperbolic I use 800. If the number is obviously more than 800, then it becomes 800 thousand, million, or billion.
ReplyDeleteskazillion (or sometimes skajillion, depending on my mood).
ReplyDeleteeleventy's good too :-)
I am not sure if this is a real word or one my husband made up, but he told me that a "blevit" is one and a half units in a one unit container. I have always oved that.
ReplyDeleteJane
remember scads?
ReplyDeleteHow about "unfinity," an infinitely small imaginary number>
ReplyDeleteHere is one I have heard from my students: twelfty...
ReplyDeleteand kajillion is often used at home.
As for time: Zero dark thirty...meaning really late!
This doesn't really count (I like elevently and we also use "fitty") -- but when I was a young teen visiting my great uncle in Seattle back in the early 80's, every other word out of mine and my sister's mouth was "gross," which he always followed up with "144, really?"
ReplyDeleteEleventy-nine, please.
ReplyDelete