Kelly from Cincinnati, Ohio, says her father uses the word gradoo to mean “clutter” or “a bit of litter.” Also spelled gradu or gradeau, our listeners report using this word in a variety of ways, to mean “gunk,” “grime” and even “bits of meat left in a skillet used to make gravy.” It might be related to French gadoue, which once meant “manure.” It might also be somehow connected with the French Canadian expression gras dur literally means “really fatty,” or figuratively “happy” or “lucky” or “fulfilled,” as in Il est gras dur, “He is happy,” although how that sense might connect with gradoo’s negative sense is unclear. What is clear is that it’s not just Kelly’s family who uses the word. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Gradu or Gradoo, an Unusual Word Meaning Gunk or Schmutz”
Hey there, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Kelly calling from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hi, Kelly.
Hi, how are you?
Doing well.
Great. I am calling because I am originally from Houston, Texas, and there is a word that my dad uses all the time that my sister and I are always confused on why and where this comes from.
And it’s the word gradu.
He always mentions like, pick up that piece of gradu on the floor.
And it’s like just like a piece of paper, like a little crumb or like a leaf.
Or when we were kids, he’d be like, clean up your rooms.
You guys have grotu everywhere.
Or if the porch is dirty, you need to sweep.
There’s grotu all over the porch.
So I’m just wondering, one, is this a real word?
And two, how do you spell it?
And where did it, what’s its deal?
Does anyone else say this besides my dad?
What’s its deal?
Well, it’s a deal, Kelly.
We should change the name of the show.
What’s the deal about words?
What’s the deal with this word?
I know.
So we’ve talked about this on the show, what, two or three times.
And we’ve talked about this on our live shows when we go on the road.
And we always get a really great response on this.
And we have so many voicemails and emails about this word.
Because lots of people are like you.
They don’t really hear it lots of places.
So when they hear it on a national radio show or they hear it in our podcast, they’re like, what?
I thought only my family used it.
And they’re really shocked.
And they call us and write us and tell us stories.
Dave from Wisconsin said his mother uses it like your father.
His mother uses it to mean clutter or stuff.
But he’s from Iowa.
But, you know, a lot of our listeners are from the South.
A lot of them are from Louisiana or Texas.
A lot of them have some connection to French or Cajun culture.
Lynn in Maine wrote that she learned it in the 1980s from an Anglophone Canadian, and they used it.
She uses it to mean anything from a smudge to a pile or a lump of ick.
So lots of different spellings.
The spellings could be G-R-A-D-O-O.
Ginger, who grew up in Eunice, Louisiana, said her mama used the word, and they spell it G-R-A-D-E-A-U, like a French spelling.
And they use it to refer to the crusty, greasy stuff in your skillet.
After you’ve fried a piece of meat.
But she writes that they would use it to make their gravy.
And she said it was weird for her to learn what most folks consider to be gunk or grime.
They use as a necessity to create delicious gravy.
Well, see, I can’t imagine eating a gravy.
Yeah, a gravy made of gradoo just sounds terrible to me.
The way it’s used.
So as to where it comes from,
Martha and I have always believed that there’s something Frenchy about this, as do many of our correspondents.
One is that it’s from one of the French words that means mud, gadoe, G-A-D-O-U-E.
And at one time that word meant manure, although that’s an outdated meaning now.
But it’s missing that crucial R.
And one of the reasons that word might have some currency, though, is that there was a song written by Serge Gainsbourg,
Recorded by Jane Birkin and Petula Clark and some other people that I think was a hit around 1966.
And Vincent, who is French and lives in San Diego, told us about it and said that when he was a kid,
He and his friends, when they would come inside from the house with mud on their shoes, would sing the song.
And it goes something like, garu, garu, garu, garu, garu, at the chorus, something like that.
And it’s mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, mud, something like that.
Amazing.
You can look it up.
But again, it’s missing that crucial R, but you might see how that got inserted in there.
And then several listeners have suggested a French-Canadian phrase,
Which means really fatty, G-R-I-S space D-U-R.
Oh, got it.
Yeah, but it’s used figuratively to mean lucky or happy or fulfilled.
He’s very happy.
But the problem is that’s kind of the opposite of G-R-I-D-U.
It’s a positive, not a negative.
And I don’t see how that gets us to gradu unless it started its life among the Acadians who became the Cajuns.
And before the modern French Canadian phrase took its meaning, you know, it’s possible.
So we don’t know, Kelly.
We don’t know.
Hell, I’ll just throw theories at you all day long.
But your dad is not alone.
That’s the bottom line there.
Very interesting theories here.
Still to crack the code of what the deal is with this work. I really appreciate these things.
This is really interesting. Thank you for putting up with this
Of a conversation. We really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.
Oh, we appreciate you. I can’t wait to tell my dad.
Thank you for calling. Take care, Kelly.
Sure. Thanks, Kelly. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Call us 877-929-9673.
