Glish, it’s what’s left over in the pan from dinner or what’s in the corner of your eye.
Glishy is how a substance can feel when it comes in contact with your skin.
Oh Glish! is what you say when someone says ‘and then the toilet overflowed’.
Also, glish is underlined in red every time I type it. Why? Not because it’s spelled wrong but because (gasp) it’s not a real word! This blog explains how I learned the truth.
It was my senior year of college. I was standing in my dorm apartment talking to my roommates when, suddenly, I felt like the main character at the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. How had I not seen it?!? There were so many clues along the way and looking back they were glaringly obvious.
She was the one that taught me the word. She was the only one I’d ever heard say it. I’d never seen it written or in print anywhere. She adjusted it’s meaning to fit any situation.
In that moment all the clues came together and I knew. She had made it up. It wasn’t a real word.
I like to think that part of me knew it all along (just like I knew Bruce Willis’ character was dead in The Sixth Sense). The truth was, I was shocked and completely surprised. How could I not have known? How could this not have come up with anyone before? The looks on my roommates’ faces combined with their silence made my mind reel. That moment is frozen in my memory. It makes me laugh and shake my head every time it flashed through my mind.
Here I was 22 years old using a word with such confidence only to discover that my mom made it up.
My mom is extraordinary and one-of-a-kind, that I know for SURE. I love that she makes up words and uses them in every day sentences. She’s never denied this habit of hers. She even acted surprised when I “confronted” her about leading me to believe glish was a real word. She never claimed it was real. She just said it one day and liked it so she kept saying it.
This moment of truth was not unlike the moment I discovered store bought cookies, the moment i learned that other people buy jam, or the time I stared quizzically at a long line of people waiting to buy bread called zwiebach. Doesn’t everyone have homemade cookies, jam, and bread stocked in their freezers?!? Nope! The sad reality is that not everyone got to grow up with my mom. I am among a very select few and I am so deeply grateful.
So here’s to moms that provide for us and support our every step in life...and even manage to spice things up with creative vocabulary!
Glish may not be in the dictionary but, as far as I’m concerned, it’s definitely a real word!
