Years ago, I was a communications manager for IBM. There was one of us at every plant and every division hq making about 50 of us total around the United States. We were a kind of club. One member of the club had this theory about word usage. He allowed as how if you made up a good enough word and got three people to use it, within a year it would get back to from a fairly untraceable source. I'm obviously forgetting the details of the deal but I do remember the word that proved his theory.
Festuche. It's pronounced fess-toosch (accent on the second syllable). A festuche is a brohaha or a big deal or a tado. "He forgot to get the approval and pretty soon we had a major festuche." or "She's such a drama queen. She could make any staff meeting into a real festuche."
It's a great word and one that doesn't have much competition. When something is a real festuche, the other options for describing it just do not measure up.
About two years after this guy introduced festuche at a bar in White Plains, NY (a few of us gathered to discuss the day long meeting we had just been subject to), the head of communications at IBM stood before a gathering of about 300 IBMers and urged us not to make 'a festuche out of today's announcement'. It was a major coup and one that called for a festuche of a celebration.
This morning I had to use the word with a guy here at work. He allowed as how he had never heard the word before and thought it was a great word and planned to use it a lot. Maybe we'll see a revival?
Edited on September 7, 2006:
I'm so sorry I can't remember the name of the guy who first proposed festuche. He should get the credit. I can remember that it was first proposed in that bar in White Plains over the winter of 1986/87. It was 1989 when Bert (or Burt - that's all I got left of the executive's name) used it in the big meeting - this time in Somers, NY.
Festuche. It's pronounced fess-toosch (accent on the second syllable). A festuche is a brohaha or a big deal or a tado. "He forgot to get the approval and pretty soon we had a major festuche." or "She's such a drama queen. She could make any staff meeting into a real festuche."
It's a great word and one that doesn't have much competition. When something is a real festuche, the other options for describing it just do not measure up.
About two years after this guy introduced festuche at a bar in White Plains, NY (a few of us gathered to discuss the day long meeting we had just been subject to), the head of communications at IBM stood before a gathering of about 300 IBMers and urged us not to make 'a festuche out of today's announcement'. It was a major coup and one that called for a festuche of a celebration.
This morning I had to use the word with a guy here at work. He allowed as how he had never heard the word before and thought it was a great word and planned to use it a lot. Maybe we'll see a revival?
Edited on September 7, 2006:
I'm so sorry I can't remember the name of the guy who first proposed festuche. He should get the credit. I can remember that it was first proposed in that bar in White Plains over the winter of 1986/87. It was 1989 when Bert (or Burt - that's all I got left of the executive's name) used it in the big meeting - this time in Somers, NY.
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LE FESTUCHE A FOGLIA FINE NEGLI ALPEGGI
DELLE ALPI OCCIDENTALI
Mauro BASSIGNANA
1 9 9 7
In nove vallate delle Alpi Occidentali (Piemonte), fu realizzata una ricerca sui
pascoli montani dominati da festuche a foglia fine. Lo studio, condotto in 45 siti
differenti per condizioni ambientali e gestionali, mirava a determinare la distribuzione,
il corteggio floristico e le condizioni ecologiche associate alle diverse specie a
foglia fine appartenenti al genere Festuca. Furono individuate otto specie: in ordine
decrescente di diffusione, Festuca nigrescens, F. curvula, F. puccinellii, F. halleri,
F. diffusa, F. scabriculmis, F. quadriflora e F. tenuifolia. La correlazione di
Spearman, calcolata per le tre specie più diffuse, mostrò un coefficiente negativo tra
F. nigrescens e le altre due specie. La cluster analysis, basata sui rilievi floristici, individuò
sette tipi principali di comunità vegetali. Nell'insieme dell'area di studio, F. nigrescens (spesso in associazione con Agrostis tenuis) prevale nelle zone di interesse pastorale, mostrando n'ampia plasticità ecologica. La presenza di F. curvula è più strettamente associata a ondizioni più secche, spesso in cotiche poco pascolate e su suoli più poveri; analogamente, anche F. puccinellii mostra un carattere xerofilo ed oligotrofo. La distribuzione di F. halleri, F. abriculmis
e F. quadriflora è quasi completamente limitata ad associazioni vegetali non pascolate, che colonizzano aree marginali di modesto interesse pastorale.
One of my Navy buddies was into word usage. His favorite word was "dick". He called everybody "dick". He once bet me that if he walked into a crowded bar and shouted "Hey dick!" that at least half the patrons would turn around and look. Of course he was right - glad the bet was only a dollar!
And just looking at
but yeah. nice word. I didn't mean to make a big festuche about it.
Just wanted the originators of the word "festuche" know that it's gaining popularity! I'm a public reference librarian in Massachusetts, and we just received a question on the origin of the word. The patron was using it in the same sense as you described. We happily referred them to your note about its creation. It's a great word--I may start using it myself!
Another word that IBM used a lot, but with a different meaning than I was used to was the word "boondoggle". For me, a boondoggle was a project or something you messed up, but in IBM it was used to describe an unnecessary business trip to a nice location.
Gary
I'm a sometime lurker on your LJ and was amused by the festuche story. I wrote about it in a blog entry about bloggers and linked back to this post. You can find it here: http://www.hastac.org/node/1209
Thanks for the fun story!
I'd like to add my comment about the word festuche..... my sisters and I HATE the word! :) My mother uses it all.the.time. To the point where it's annoying. In a "I still love my mother dearly" way.
I've never asked her where it came from.... and it's funny....
We're an IBM family....my grandfather was an exec in NY! :) Closer to the answer!
I love that you and your sisters make a festuche out of the word - that tickles me!
My mom has been using that word forever!
I was just going to use it in an email to a friend, but was unsure how to spell - so, got looking and found you.
I just asked her about it, and she has NO clue where she heard first. Regardless, it's like yiddish - some yiddish words just can't be replaced!
Thanks for the history!
Leslie
Your Yiddish analogy is on the money!
"Festuche" traveled from IBM Information Network in DC, instantly to Tampa, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, SFO, Min/St Paul & NYC. It took several years (and the growth of the Global Network) to make into crusty Sommers, Armonk, White Plains & other exulted IBM cities
Amazing !
BTW, according to Charlie "Festuche" Hughes (who still keeps excellent records of important stuff), gives me original credit for "Cloud Computing", after confirming with several parties & dated it circa 1992 (my memory says 1994).