Did you ever invent a phrase that caught on?

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I just realized something while answering another thread, I fully believe I invented a phrase when I grew up, that everyone else started using. Is that just plain wrong to believe? (this post is mostly the same as my answer to the other thread, but I felt it needed its own thread)

"Good bye" in my language means "Be good" (roughly translated), I felt awkward saying that when I was younger, and I made my own farewell phrase composing of the word for "be", with the last part swapped with something else "for a while", so it ended up being "be for a while". Well, that sounds weird when translated, but "be" could also mean "bye" , so it actually means "bye for a while".

It has stuck with me until this day, and I might be delusional, but in my mind, I came up with this saying on my own. However, my whole family said it while growing up, and it must have spread to friends aswell, cause suddenly everyone I knew said it back to me like that. Today I only say it to my wife, kids, mother and my sister(would have said it to my brother and father aswell, if they spoke to me).

Is this a little fun fact I should mention to my psychologist to help find some comorbids to my Aspergers? Is it typical of Aspergers? Am I delusional?

My only suggestion is to search for an earlier example of the word having been used - an example from a time that came before you could have possibly come up with it - an audio/video recording, or some sort of written example of it. Look it up in the etymology (the history of words) of your language, for a start.

Could it also possibly be something about the regional accent where you live, that makes the saying sound like that?

Thanks, good advice. It would have been in 1987-88 or something. I tried searching for the phrase + "2012" all the way to "1999" on google.com , and there were less and less occurrences the further back I searched(+400 in 2012, while only 15 in 1999). But internet interactivity isn't that old, so it's not really a reliable indicator.

I do not want to claim credit, I only wonder what it means diagnosticly if (1) I were uncomfortable with a known phrase, and (2) invented my own, or (3) I didn't invent it but think I did (If I did, it was at age 7 or 8 ).

So, have anyone experienced something similar?

No.

Last edited by Blownmind on 04 Jul 2012, 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Why not???

Aspies invent gadgets, art, engineering thingys, scientific discoveries..... why not phrases??

I like to invent words and poems.

Phrases all start with the first utterance by the first individual.

I was always saying new things that my friends would copy in their own rhetoric.

They are just not aspie enough to do it themselves

I have the strong impression that I invented and popularised the term "unco" meaning "uncoordinated" at school. But I am almost certainly wrong about that. It is very easy to not realise that you picked up a term from someone else.

I invented 'autistic sensibilities'... but it has yet to catch on.

This has been my thoughts too, ever since the day I asked a friend a year or two after I had first said it. His reaction when I claimed to have said it first were only ridicule; "How could I think such a thing? How bloated are your ego? Of course you didn't say it first, that is impossible.". So I never told anyone else about it until I told my wife about it a couple of years ago. It's hard to prove something happened 20 years ago, so I do not have any intentions of doing so, my only intention is to make sense of the conviction I am left with and how certain aspects of it may help me sort out who I am today (because past events and beliefs may have an effect on my psych profile).

However, I do distinctly remember not being comfortable with my countrys version of "good bye", it felt so final. "Bye for a while" / "Bye for a bit" (it could be translated both ways) are much less final, and in almost all cases of goodbyes, I were going to see them the other day, or later in the week, so "good bye" weren't accurate because of the finality of the phrase. And in addition, the phrase I ended up using were shorter. I don't know, I could have imagined being the first to say it of course. I don't deny that. But.. it's more Aspie to not wish them a "good" bye, isn't it? Egocentric as many are...

Yolololololo
...
Please dont kill me. I have a funny feeling it wont catch on...

You are so right, it would be hard to kill you more than once.