The Jane Austen Book Club: MOOFY

My husband got involved with watching The Jane Austen Book Club last night. I couldn’t take more than a few minutes of it. I like chick flicks as much as anyone, I guess, but I strongly dislike soap opera, particularly witless soap opera (I am aware I may be offending some fans of the flick, and I apologize) and I couldn’t watch it. I hung in for a while, but lost it when one of the gals went into screaming hysterics at her husband, because he talked to a friend of hers who had embarrassed her in high school.

“That was high school,” the husband says, “it’s over.”

To which she replies with her tragic gravity: “High school is never over!”

Jane Austen would have made mincemeat with that woman, laying her out quite nicely in delicious and incisive ridicule.

I pronounced the movie “Moofy” and went to leave for something more entertaining, like unloading the dishwasher. My husband asked, “what is ‘moofy‘?

I snorted with disdain, “stupid-as-moo and goofy; I just made it up, inspired by this insipidy!”

“Oh, and I guess ‘insipidy’ is a new word, too?”

I blushed, realizing that I’d clevered-myself into a hole. “Yes, I made that up, too! I’m a wealth of new words!”

“Yeah…more like you’re ill-acquainted with proper English,” he teased. “Why don’t you call the six-year old (my niece) and tell her your new words; she’ll love them!”

So, this morning I called the six-year old, who invited me over for bagels, and she likes the word “moofy” quite a lot.

But because she has some measure of taste she looked balefully at me with “insipidy.” She doesn’t know “insipid” but she figures any word that makes her want to sing “inspidy doo-dah, zippity-yay” is probably stupid.

I think it’s cute, but I defer to the kid; she’s lost a tooth, after all, and is thus growing in wisdom.

Another new word invented from the blog: SMUPPITY (Smug & Uppity)

by TheAnchoress @ 3:21 pm. Filed under Bookchat, Free Speech?, TV/Pop Culture/Music

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6 Responses to “The Jane Austen Book Club: MOOFY”

Piano Girl Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Please tell your dear husband that I think both “moofy” and “insipidy” are perfectly good words, and I like them!!! LOL And now I must go await dinner ~ I have two favorites for dinner…carry-out and delivered…and it’s the “delivered” variety tonight for this tired ol’ gal.
nan Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
My daughters and I are all fans of Jane Austen. The youngest rented The Jane Austen Fan Club and we all cuddled up to watch it. After approximately 10 minutes of watching in complete silence we all agreed it was a travesty and turned it off. What a disappointment!
Laura Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Thanks - you just saved me a few bucks at the video store.
Beth Says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Oh, pish-posh. Moofy is a PERFECT word! I think it’s my new favorite word! (Watch–I’ll be overusing it before long.)

BTW, thanks for the earworm. Insipidy doo dah, insipidy-yay… :sigh:
wannie Says:
May 4th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Anchoress: Moofy is a GREAT word, with much depth. I sent it off to Bill O’Reilly immediately, couldn’t help it:

Bill,
I look forward to your nightly tips to emailers on how to write
(or not write) their comments. Very colorful, as well as educational,
choice of words (”Pecksniffian” being one of my all-time favorites).
Allow me to suggest a new one for the collection, offered up by the
most excellent conservative Catholic blogger, The Anchoress, in a
posting on 5/3/08:

moofy: meaning “stupid-as-moo and goofy”

Packed with meaning. It doesn’t get much better than that in 2 short
syllables.

Included the URL for attribution, of course. Hope “moofy” makes it on the O’Reilly Factor. I can see Mr O letting fly with that one: “If you wish to opine, don’t .. be .. moofy!”
tim maguire Says:
May 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I agree with the crowd, moofy is a fine word, in a hip teenager sort of way.

Insipidy is not. You identify the problem–too much like zippidity–the ending is out of place with the meaning. (And it dredges up a really obnoxious memory of some commercial cutesy child-brat saying “indubity” for “indubitably”. So even if it weren’t a bad word, bad associations would still ruin it.)