Believe it or not, I haven't. I might have created new definitions for old words merely because I didn't know the truer definition, but never have I ever sat down and created my own word.
There is a story out there that maybe 130 years ago in Dublin, Ireland, one rich old tosser bet another rich old tosser that he could create a word never seen before, and within a week have everyone using it.
Since this was before Twitter, Facebook and the Interweb, the guy took the bet. No way could anyone ever create a word and have it go viral within a week back in 1880.
So… using modern 1880 networking devices, one of the rich old tossers created a four letter word and then paid a bunch of apple scruffs to go about the streets late one night to write the word - and only the word - all over the walls and fences of Dublin.
In the morning when the city awoke, there, written all over the walls and fences et al of the city was the word. A buzz was created and it soon was on everyone's lips, as people began to wonder just what this four-letter word meant, as everyone was puzzled.
"Do you know what blah-blah-blah means?"
"I have no idea! It's puzzling that I have no knowledge of this word."
And over and over it went with folks wondering just what the word was… and that was how the word QUIZ became known as a test of knowledge and something puzzling… or a practical joke or hoax…
Which brings me to the above kanji.
This is a made up word. The two figures are combined to make one word. In fact, the figure on the right is a made up kanji, combining the symbol for "up" and the symbol for 'down'. Combine that up-down kanji with the symbol on the left meaning 'girl', we have a combined word that essentially means 'up and down girl'.
Welcome to your new kanji. It means 'elevator girl'. She's the excitable young lady who makes the elevator go up and down at the better department stores in Japan.
I have to admit that only once in three years was I 'lucky' enough to take an elevator controlled by an elevator girl… and 22 years later, it is obvious it made quite the impression on me.
Second floor: Locks, socks, o-cha and clocks - mind your step, please.
Next… third floor: flippers, clippers and toilet slippers - mind your step, please.
Now picture that being said in such a super high piercing voice that could shatter your contact lenses by a pretty young girl who could be 21 or 12 done up in such a cutesty-pie way that you aren't sure if you should be turned-on or revolted.
Meet 'elevator girl'.
On the plus side, I am quite happy to report that the high-pitched girly voice was put-on by the elevator girl. She does not talk like that in real life. Not even the morning after.
Oh yes I did.
And she was 20. I was 26. Our brief relationship had its ups and downs, but in a way that was quite enjoyable.
Andrew Joseph
Thanks to friend and fellow drone from sector 47A, Michael P. who shared this creative kanji with me - he said it was created by another friend of his when they both lived in Tokyo a few years back.
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