Tidying up my Christmas cards, I found one that hadn’t been opened. It was deep in a cardboard container for a wine bottle.
“Have a super-duper Christmas”, my brother wrote.
Super-duper.
It’s a long time since anyone wished me a super-duper anything. It brought a happy grin to my scowling dial.
I looked it up in the Macquarie Dictionary. There it was:
super-duper adjective, Colloquial — extremely fine, great, pleasing, etc. [dissimilated replication of SUPER]
I looked up dissimilate. To change a speech sound so it is less like a neighbouring syllable.
Enough of this lexicography!
It’s not as if super-duper was a mystery.
It’s just a happy phrase. How many other cheery phrases from the past have slipped out of use?
In the midst of a very grey, cloudy, overcast start to the year, and more news about masks, statistics, border closures etc., came a brief moment of bright blue sky. I took my camera on to the balcony to capture it before it vanished.
So here’s to a super-duper 2021 for everyone, may the year bring blue skies, the scent of frangipanis, easier contact with our friends and family, and whatever else you may wish for.
I also look forward to more contributions to this shared blog from our talented team.
PENELOPE NELSON
January 2021
Happy New Year to all! and thanks to Penny for Balcony Fever, and for the beautiful pink frangipanni – my favorite flower.
On the super-duper topic, ‘super’ was THE word of my 1950s childhood. I first heard ‘super-duper’ when I was about 8 and my cousin (who was in her thirties) used the word – it’s strange how we recall some childhood experiences so clearly, while unable to retrieve others.
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