Gratigasm!

You heard it here first folks!  Gratigasm! 

Definition (not found in Wikipedia wink-wink)

·         feeling so grateful you spill over with delight…..usually something serendipitous or unexpected

·         Feeling of extreme pleasure and gratitude

The word has now been officially coined. 

Hmm Coined? 

This brings up a question (to me anyway):  Who coined the phrase ‘to coin a phrase’?  Good question right?  So I went looking and here are a few definitions I found in various places:

·         ‘Quoins’ were used to wedge columns of type in the printers ‘chase’.  Printers believed that putting things in type was to make them permanent and the belief is that this is the origin of the phrase.

·         ‘to coin a phrase’ is used when introducing a new expression or a variation on a familiar one, or ironically to show one’s awareness that one is using a hackneyed expression:  she was, to coin a phrase, swept off her feet.

·         The true meaning is to create a phrase

·         Its origin comes from the old printing methods when blocks of type were set into galleys.  A line of type was a phrase, and it was locked into position in the galley by tightening two slotted discs at either side, called ‘coins’.  When they were tightened up, the printer or his apprentice had ‘coined a phrase’.  It is now an expression commonly used ironically to introduce a cliché or a banal sentiment.

·         ‘to coin a phrase’ didn’t appear in print until July 1848 in a Wisconsin newspaper, the Southport Journal, which said. “Had we to find…a name which should be once convey the enthusiasm of our feelings towards her, we would coin a phrase combining the extreme of admiration and horror and term her the Angel of Assassination.”

Excuse me?  Combining the extreme of admiration and horror?   That could be another definition for Gratigasm, to coin my own phrase.  Although Gratigasms is just a word, to me it sounds like a new phrase so I will classify it as a word/phrase.

Even though I found all this research and information interesting, I didn’t feel gratigasmic.  I suppose an example of what a gratigasm might be is in order.  Here goes….

I’ve been tutoring for the last 3 years.  My student is a First Nation’s man in his fifties.  He is illiterate and I’ve got a certificate that says I can teach him to read and write.  He is very shy and looks down at the table top a lot.  I, frankly, do very little teaching.

I started slowly by listening to him and gaining his trust.  Listening is the key word.  I felt as if no one had listened to him before.  He began to tell me about his childhood and his family and some of the pain he has suffered.

I meet him every week for an hour and I let him talk.  Sometimes I slip in a book or an exercise and we do it together.  It is my one hour with him and I look forward to it each week as he does.

We haven’t missed many weeks in our 3 years together except when I travel.  Last year I went to Africa for 6 weeks and I wondered how he would be when I returned.  I thought perhaps he would be angry or depressed or maybe not even show up.

He was there when I came through the door and he was smiling like my grandchildren do when they see me coming.  We hugged and had our coffee and talked. 

Then he pulled out his work book and showed me all the words he had written while I was away.  He showed me neatly printed names of all the movie stars that he loves.  He was so proud and I was so proud of him.

Gratigasm!