Fun With Words

Broyderne (broy-durn') adj. 1. Vaguely dissatisfied. 2. Unhappy without really knowing the cause or cure, used mainly as a substitute or filler when a word cannot be found to express one's feelings of restlessness.


I used to work with this great guy called John. Everybody loves John. He's one of those people who knows everyone's name, but not in a fake he's-your-buddy-he's-your-pal kind of way, he just genuinely likes people and pays attention to them when they speak. He's got a great sense of humour, he's extra-smart, and he's a truly talented art director to boot.

He is one of the main reasons I stayed working at the airplane factory long after I should have (well, because of him and another awesome co-worker). It's rare that you get to work with sane, mature, professional people, and I thought I should try to absorb as much as I could from the environment while I could. (That is, until the crazy corporation that we were working for drove us all away. But that's another entry.)

Anyway, the reason I liked working with John was that, not only was he great to actually get work done with, he was a great person to talk to when it was 3:00 pm on a Tuesday and you were feeling... eeennngghh, ya know? In fact, one day when I was still new at the place I went over to talk to him. I plopped down in his extra chair and said, "I'm feeling a little... I don't know... you know... ?" He said, "Broyderne?" I said, "Yeah! Wait, what does that mean?" He said, "I don't know. It's from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think it means sad. It's from one of the songs."

Now John is a pretty conservative guy. Literate, intellectual, philosophical, father of two teenagers, John Denver lover, etc. I really couldn't see him in a theatre dressed as Frank N Furter shooting squirt-guns at other patrons, but whatever. Book by it's cover and all that sort of thing, I suppose. Myself, I had only ever seen the movie on the small screen once or twice and I couldn't remember what he was referencing. But I liked the sound of it anyway, even though I couldn't find a definition of it anywhere. For the next two years we used it whenever we were searching for a name for our discontent (and believe me, there was a lot of it at the factory). We felt it expressed a lot in its vagueness.

Last year for Halloween my roommate was going to go as Magenta from Rocky Horror. I remembered that I had a VHS copy of it given to my by a friend a million years ago and we pulled it out so that she could figure out her costume. We fast-forwarded it to 'Sweet Transvestite'. Sure enough there it was: "How'd'you do I... see you've met my... faithful handyman. He's just a... little broyderne because... when you knocked... he thought you were the candyman."

It was of course here that I realized that Tim Curry, with his heavy accent, was actually saying 'brought down'. Which of course made me feel... well, a little broyderne. Because now John's great word was ruined. I debated on whether or not to tell him about my discovery... We had so much fun with the little word. In the end, though, I thought that he deserved to know the truth, if only in the interest of etymology. He took it rather well, I must say. Much better than I.

I still use broyderne of course, but not with the same wild abandon I once did. Perhaps it was the element of exclusivity that made using it so exciting. Maybe that's why I like using another word (or phrase?) that I've heard on television (it's interchangeable with broyderne, strangely). I think it might be Yiddish or Hebrew in origin, but of course I have no idea how it's spelled or even how to look it up.

In any case, I shall be excited to use the word whenever I'm feeling a little ishmudlicheit. (That is, until I figure out what the hell I'm actually saying.)