B is for Bushwa

When my grandmother was frustrated with something, her favorite word to use was “bushwa.” According to an online dictionary, “bushwa” means “rubbish” or “nonsense.” And that’s exactly how my grandmother used it. I never knew where that word came from, as she was the only one I knew who used it, but I loved hearing her say it! According, again, to an online dictionary, it’s a combination of the French “bourgeois” and the English “bulls**t.” I can’t see my grandmother using either of those words, but “bushwa” seems just right for her.

How many substitutes for curse words are there? Well, when you look for those starting with “B,” you find mostly “by Jove” or “by heaven” or “by god.” Those technically start with the letter “B,” but the powerful word of the phrase may start with anything.

There are a few, though, that legitimately start with “B” such as “balderdash,” “bonehead,” “blast,” “boogedy” (one of my favorites), “birdbrain,” and “bloody.” And not forgetting the English word mentioned above, along with its cousins “b**ch” and “bas***d.”

But somehow, with all these mild-to-medium, socially acceptable curse words and expressions, there just wasn’t one that spoke to me. So to speak. ;-) Thus, I’ve invented my own:

“BIFPIB.”

Here’s what it stands for:

BIg Fat Pain In the Butt.

BIFPIB.

Feel free to use it and spread it around. Maybe it will be a new word added to the Oxford English Dictionary someday! And let’s bring back “bushwa,” too.