“What makes you jelly? Excuse me I don’t understand the question.” This exchange came up during a webinar with some colleagues that are about 25 years my junior. As the dialogue went on, I finally understood that they were asking me what makes you jealous. When did the word jelly replace jealous is what I was trying to figure out? As I have interacted with younger people and I must add that these interactions have largely been virtual or via Facebook, I notice there are quite a few “word replacements” that took me by surprise. For instance, I was watching someone sell lipstick during a live sale, she referred to the lipstick as lippies. Last week I commentated a fashion show and there were several vendors there. One was selling sunglasses. I asked the vendor how much they were, and she told me the “sunnies” were $10. OK so now sunglasses are sunnies. I had heard this before but did not know this was the new universal word for sunglasses. What did I miss and when did I miss it? Am I out of the loop because I am no longer in an office each day with people of different ages, or it is it due to me not paying attention to the new words that are added each year to the dictionary? While writing this column I stopped to look at the words added to the dictionary in 2021 and 2022, lippie, sunnie or jelly was not on the list or at least I couldn’t find them. However, I sure learned a lot about the words that have been added. Now that I am considered a senior citizen, I still want to remain current and feel comfortable around people who are young enough to be my grandchildren. Much of my audience falls into my age range and I want to keep you in the know by letting you know “what is hip.” Don’t be jelly of the models and movie stars go and buy yourself a lippy and a pair of sunnies. Translation: don’t be jealous of the models and movie stars buy yourself a new lipstick and a pair of sunglasses.
Email the columnist at debbienorrell@aol.com
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