Burdle is a real word. Don't question me, spellcheck.

in I am totally overrated, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Random Crap, weekly reruns

Conversation with my husband:

Victor:  Ugh.  I’m having a shitty day.

me:  What’s wrong?  Release your burdle unto me.

Victor:  Um…my what?

me: Your burdle.  it’s short for “bundle of burdens”.

Victor: That’s not a real word.

me: It is.  I just used it.

Victor: Just because you say it doesn’t mean that it’s a real word.

me:  Actually, it does.  That’s where new words come from.  I’m like the stork of new words.

Victor:  Well if it’s short for “bundle of burdens” wouldn’t that be “bundens”?

me:  Bundens?  Don’t be ridiculous.  “Bundens” is not a real word.  

Victor: You make my head hurt.

me: You’re my husband.  It’s the heavy burdle you have to bear.

*************

And in other news, it’s time for the weekly wrap-up:

What you missed in my shop (tentatively called “Eight pounds of uncut cocaine” so that your credit card bill will be more interesting.):

What you missed on the internets:

This week’s wrap-up is sponsored by Flip Your Cats.  From the makers: “Flip the Cats is simple to learn, challenging and fun; you trap and capture your opponent’s cats by placing yours around them. Place your cats on either side of your opponent’s to flip it to your colour… but on their turn, your opponent can do the same to you.  FLIP YOUR CATS TO VICTORY.”

119 thoughts on “Burdle is a real word. Don't question me, spellcheck.”

Read comments below or add one.

  1. Man, my wife gives me hell for doing that all of the time. She calls it “Davespeak”. My favorite, “Massacrate”, to be used when you massacre and desacrate at the same time. Very usefull when playing zombie killer games.
    Dave

  3. I tell you I have been having some burdles. Why does everything have to break at once? Why can’t I wash my clothes and heat my house and drive my car at the same time? Is the car, the washer and the furnace all connected somehow? Why god why!?

    Okay. I feel better now. Thanks for letting me share my burdles.

  6. My son used to have a stuffed turtle named Burdle. Sorta wishing I hadn’t thrown him out now. But I guess that was his bundle of burden to carry.

  7. I will totally co-opt both burdle and massacrate (thanks number 1!). I think they are both much needed fillers in a lacking dictionary.

  11. Crap, I don’t want them to send an assassin to your house, but I already voted for you. Can you get a Bloggess Mannequin to foil the would be killers? (Would that be a Bloggessequin?)

    Share your burdles with us all – they are much more interesting and easier to wear than girdles.

  14. As of right now burdle is part of my vocabulary! You should be given accolades for creating new and interesting words. 🙂

  16. In college, my linguistics professor always said native speakers define the language. So, we can make up whatever word we want as it’s our language.

  17. Just tell Victor to stop being a Sarcasshole and accept that once you use a word it’s real.

  23. Wow, it’s amazing tat after all that time together poor Victor is still retry clueless ! Now you need to run a tweet competition to see wh can come up with the best tweet containing this addition to the daily lexicon….

  27. You should go put it on the Urban Dictionary site, maybe write up a wiki entry about how it was created.

    I think we can do this.

    But you are right: “Burdle” rolls off the tongue much more smoothly than “bunden.”

    “Bunden.” How do you put up with that?

  28. I used the word fardwood the other day (fake hardwood) and I’m sure it’s a word. And if not, it will be by the end of this year. Start using it now.

    Hey, I love your floor! Is it real oak? No, it’s fardwood.
    OMG, I just spilled wine on your wooden floor! Psssht, dont’ worry, it’s fardwood. It’ll clean right up.
    I’m getting all new farwood floors installed in my house today!

  29. Bubblebathrsophie: when you get so excited about Calgon taking you away that you pour in the whole bottle and flood the bathroom with wonderful, wonderful bubbles. See also: bubble bath catastrophie.

  31. “I’m a finalist in the Bloggies for a bunch of stuff, including “lifetime achievement” so I think that means if I win they send an assassin to the house.”

    Wow – first prize is your own assassin?!!! That’s amazing: all Academy Award winners get is a lame statue.

  32. I wonder if my husband complains that I never listen again if telling him I am his burdle will distract him. Psst there is something wrong with your comment spell check.

  33. My husband makes up words all the time… gah. AND he mixes up his idioms. As a teacher- it drives me nuts. Usually I side with you over Victor. This time I feel his pain.

  35. Great – I suppose that SpellTower is going to side with Victor and not let me use burdle either. It already won’t let me use foxen and that’s just bullshit.

  37. If he’s going to argue with you about “burdle” just tell him that it’s short for “burden bundle.”

  43. Bundens are where wild bunnies live, so it’s also a word, just not one that means the same as burdles. Which is definitely a word.

  46. It is too a real word. I use “real” words all the time, “congree” being one of them. (A combination of “agree” and “concur.”) Another portmanteau of which I am a fan is “complifended” (when you are unsure of whether or not to be offended or complimented). It’s a word that comes in handy when describing how you feel after a hobo tells you he loves your “fat assss, mmmmmmm.”

    True story.

  47. Love you, Jenny. Really think we need to start a campaign to get you on The Colbert Report. You can talk smack about how you’re gonna kick his ass in the Audie Awards.

  49. I make words up too, but only two of them only get used by other people. #1 – Rastard: Rat Bastard. #2 – Precipifoiled: outdoor plans being ruined by precipitations of any kind, as in “the hail storm precipifoiled the soccer game” or “hiking was precipifoiled again”. I don’t get why other people don’t understand my genius.

  51. Congratulations, Jenny! May your award make your burdles lighter. I note with pleasure that you performed YOUR OWN audio book. I don’t like to purchase audio books read by some third party, because the inflections may be other than the writer intended. I was dismayed to see that your very renowned award companion, Cronkite, is READ BY SOMEONE ELSE. What, they couldn’t put some of his newscasts on tape? You and Colbert both did your very own.
    I know that some people write well, but were just born with lousy speaking voices. If someone sounds nasal or grating, no one wants to hear it. But I really wish more writers would read their own work aloud, and I am so glad you did. I would buy it if I did not already have my own hard copy and cyber copy.

  52. Burdle is almost as cool as mariod= man period and of course it’s a real word because I have to deal with my man when he’s on his mariods.*and it’s real*

  53. All that comes to mind when I say “burdle” is an old lady in oversize panty hose. Maybe it’s Ethel’s sister? Have no clue why. 🙂

  54. I thought bundens were the extra pounds on my ass. Huh.

    As far as burdles is concerned: That is exactly where new words come from.

    It’s just a matter of time before the Oxford English Dictionary has the word burdle in it and in the notes it will say “First usage noted in 2013 by The Bloggess.”

    It’s what they do after all.

  55. Well… thanks! Because of you introducing me to motherfucking recipes, I am now on tumblr. I had been able to resist so that I would not be distracted by anything else the internet offers. But, now I’m adding to my burdle. Which I’ve just added to my online dictionary so, no more red lines under the word when I type it and no more “That’s not a real word” arguments. It’s in the dictionary. Dictionaries don’t lie.

  59. Bunden is a word, Victor was just using it wrong.
    Bunden /bun-den/ (noun) – Bunion found on the foot of a dentist.
    Used in a sentence: He dropped the waterpik on his bunden and it hurt like a motherfucker.

  60. I, too, am a champ at made-up/combined words. This is how language gets more efficient, truly. Without wordovation, we’d take ages to communicate, yeah?

    Word.

  64. “Flip the Cats is simple to learn, challenging and fun; you trap and capture your opponent’s cats by placing yours around them”

    So its “Reversi” with a graphic-lift?

  65. Urban dictionary already has burdle.
    1. to f*** your life; often referred to as FML
    2. A person who walks around at night begging for cereal, apple juice or milk. Can take over whole houses if its needs are not met. the only way to defeat a burdle is to give it what it demands.
    We’ll make bundle of burdens #3
    Seems to me a burdle ( 2) with a (3) burdle would be burdled.(1)

  68. A) It might be a word, it might not. B) If Shakespeare can make shit up and still be famous for it 500 years after he died, so can we. C) No one ever said it wasn’t a word in another language. I’m sure that somewhere on the planet, the sound of the word “burdle” means something. We’re just fucking Berlitz, is all. D) Anything you say with a Tony Soprano accent will NOT be questioned. “So help me, I will BURDLE YOU!”

  70. Cool! I now have a slew of new words – burdle, massacrated, rastard, precipifoiled. I think the last is my favorite.

  73. Great word! I’m going to start using it. Maybe it will catch on and when it becomes super popular, I’ll be able to say, “I know where that awesome word comes from. If you allow me to tell you of my burdles, I’ll also sneak in the name of the woman who came up with it.” It’s going to be amazing. Just wait…

  76. I also have my own language which my husband calls “Beth speak”. Ironically it consists largely of adding – ly or – les to regular words. My husband sometimes makes up words in this style and asks me if I approve of it. He’s great. By the way, burdle is definitely getting used by me, though in Beth speak it will become “burdles”.

  78. I think you might be getting confused with fardles. Hamlet had the same problem, it didn’t end well.

  80. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. (Epbot link).

    PS, burdle is a great word. I shall find an excuse to use it today.

  83. Oh gosh that was funny! Burdle…. Rhymes with hurdle so, I guess that means you’ve got a hurdle to get over if you’re carrying a burdle! Thanks for making my day…

  85. And…awesome again….just sayin…you say what i think…( or at least what i would think if i was as awesome as you…)

  86. Jenny, why aren’t you at the Oscars?

    You wrote a book (soon to be a movie, with Dustin Hoffman playing Hamlet von Schnitzel and Anne Hatheway playing Beyonce’s left leg).

    You are way weirder than anyone in LA, except for maybe Joaquin Phoenix.

    Were you a no show to be fashionable?

    Central Texas girls with stuffed animals would kick ass at the Oscars.

    Just sayin’.

  87. Ha! Of course it’s a word – personally created by you. I hope you were wearing you what the fuck ever t-shirt during the conversation.

  89. I totally get it! Burdle = bundle of burdens because when you translate most things to “regular English”, they get turned around a bit. A bunden is the part of the den in which foxes keep their dinner rolls. *duh, Victor*

  91. Um, can you please make that a t-shirt that I can buy my hubby? I have been a huge burdle to him lately and he would laugh. Can’t wait to see you in Kentucky soon.

  93. Thank you so much for posting the link from Epbot. I’ve got 2 years of SI “sobriety” and it’s so, so inspiring to see the lengths people will go to to help others. Elijah is seriously an amazing person. And to anyone who is still currrently strugglnig- it WILL get better. Fight your butt off and accept any hands outstretched to hold yours. <3

    Also- can we just acknowledge how all the cool people on the internet are named "Jen"? You and Jen Yates are like the dream team of nerd girls everywhere….

  94. Admit it, you want to use “burdles” rather than “fardles” just to pretend that Gynoamericans don’t fart.

  95. Hey, I don’t know about Stephen in the Audie’s… your review is much better than his. Good luck!

  96. Victor OBVIOUSLY hasn’t been to the South. We make shit up all the time and mash words together and claim they are real. It’s how you develop a rich culture. Right, y’all?

  99. More than make up imaginary words, you create words that fill an already-existing need. Services to humanity is what that is. Also I usually skip over your sponsors (because I’m a bad person??) but this time I looked–flipping cats? I had to make sure it wasn’t a joke. You have weird-ass random sponsors, but I kind of love it.

  100. I don’t know how I ended up being a Bloggie finalist, let alone in a category with the great and powerful Bloggess. I’m just excited my little link shows up next to yours! (But I will accept pity votes, Jenny. I will. Best Writing of a Weblog. Do I deserve it? Nope. But it’s really sad to let one of your readers get like only 12 votes in the Bloggies, you know? PS- I love you and your tasteful taxidermy.)

  105. Not to be confused with “birdle” which is a bundle of birds.
    BTW, as one who coined the term “twitstery” for my Twitter mystery, “Executive Severance” (http://amzn.to/TNelLH), and my work-in-progress sequel “The Golden Parachute” (@Twitstery) you have my sympathies, (or synpathies if your feelings aren’t genuine).

  107. Blugny. That’s the word to say that The Bloggess is funny in a way that only she can be. It’s used when you grow tired of writing the words, “You’re so funny” over and over again in the comments.

  108. Shakespare made up over 3000 words, and they count as real words. Meanning,u can totaly make up words and them still be “real” words!!!!!! Random fact , shakespare never went 2 university. Also I can not spell 😉

  110. Jenny Lawson you are my “huse”…..as in a humor muse. Thanks for the laughs. Seriously. Victor is a saint!!! We love him too.

  111. I was looking at the new cartoon you’ve been using (you riding Beyonce, the big metal chicken)… you’re wearing a tutu (or perhaps it’s a wifebeater / skirt combination), and you have bear feet (’cause you can see your toes)… but there’s no pants or stockings (no delineation of anything at the ankles or knees). Which means you’re riding a big metal chicken either with just panties, or… commando. Which, I suppose, if you’re riding a big metal chicken, makes more sense than not.

    Jus’ sayin’.

  112. I’m sure it is a real word somewhere in East L.A. or in Houston… we like to make up our own words.. “we aint got time for looking up real words!”

  113. I was kinda hopeful that if I looked in my ancient Shorter Oxford English Dictionary I would find SOMETHING for ‘burdle’ — clearly this is a flaw in the book and if I had the full edition it would totally be there. I did find the following, and am sharing them for communal pleasure: burgall (a fish), burthen (alternative spelling of burden), buprestis (“an insect of the ancients, harmful to cattle”), burglarious (“of or pertaining to burglary”, Burghal-penny (some kind of medieval tax), and my favorite so far – burry (“full of burs,” naturally).

  115. I love obscure words and made-up words, but really only when used on purpose. My husband gets words wring all the time (smart guy, but in a science way not a grammarly way) and I hate to admit I find it endearingly maddening.

  116. I blame you for my swollen eyes! Ihave been laughing so fucking hard all day. I’m reading your book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. You are my twin lol. When my memoir comes out you can’t sue me for plagiarism because I have witnesses…unfortunately lmfao. Now stop making me cry damn it!

  117. I’m totally using “burdle” from now on.

    My daughter chose the word, “poick”, which I always found appropriate, and even inappropriate. It is a combination between pointing your finger and poking someone. It is the movement you do with the finger that suggests you are about to poke the other person.

    I can see it having inappropriate meaning all over the place.

  118. You just need a copy of the OED– you can make up words and then check and they’re in there. It’s the greatest Scrabble dictionary ever.

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