Origin of Nosy

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Patrick. I’m calling you from beautiful Vista, California.

Hello, beautiful Patrick from Vista, California. Welcome.

Welcome to the program. How can we help you?

Well, I have an interest in that expression, nosiness.

My wife comes from a country that’s kind of nosy, and they have the expression too.

It just sounds funny to me that we’d use the nose as an instrument, like an investigative instrument.

And then I found it in other languages, and I’ve traveled around the world a lot, and it’s in other cultures, too.

A lot of people use the expression nosy or sticky beak or something like that.

Sticky beak in Australia and New Zealand, right?

Yeah, exactly.

I love that for a nosy person, a sticky beak.

Yeah, it’s funny because it sounds like the nose does all the investigating.

The five senses get these little side jobs, you know?

But my wife, she’s from Bangladesh.

And one time I heard her using this expression called, well, she says, nak kolano.

And it means nose going.

And I’m like, oh, my God, you guys use the expression nosy?

And she didn’t know what I was talking about.

So I explained it to her.

She says, yeah, you know, when somebody’s get their business, you know, they’re curious as to what you’re doing.

And I think that’s really funny.

It’s all the different cultures.

Yeah.

So they’re described as nose-going?

Yeah, they say nose-going.

That person is very nose-going.

And in her culture, which, you know, I apologize to any Bangladeshi listeners.

I hope they get a laugh out of this.

It’s okay in that they’re very nosy people, kind of like I could be walking down the street over there

And someone will ask somebody that I don’t even know, you know, where are you going?

I’m thinking, well, I don’t even know you.

You know, you never asked that.

Strangers?

Yeah.

Whoa.

Like, hi, how you, you know, I ask, hi, how you doing?

And they don’t respond back with, you know, fine.

They respond back with, where are you going?

What’s your name?

What’s your religion?

Wow.

Wow.

Really?

Yeah, that reminds me when I traveled in South America, just, you know, kind of low-level travel, like buses and that sort of thing.

And I’d sit down next to strangers, and in the first minute, they would always say, are you married?

Do you have kids?

Right.

Do you at least have a girlfriend?

Yeah.

That’s very nosy.

But it’s also like it’s the thing they most want to know.

So that’s their way of getting together with your brain and just finding a little bit more about you.

It’s only nosy to an outsider on the inside.

It’s like a cultural thing.

I’m interested in this nose going that the Bangladeshis have because there are other cultures, of course, as you mentioned,

Other cultures where it’s built into the language that something to do with the nose is about looking into business or looking into other people’s affairs.

Mm—

Kind of intriguing.

The Italians have it.

I think the Spanish speakers have something along those lines.

I can’t think of anything like that.

And I have heard one in Spanish.

I don’t know exactly what it is, but it has to do with it.

It sounds like olf.

Oh, yeah, olfatear.

Olfatear, right?

Yeah, I forgot about that one.

Well, cool.

Thanks for sharing your story with us.

I love these cross-cultural connections.

They come up so often in our shows, and it’s a bottomless mine of wonderful gold.

Patrick, take care of yourself.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

He reminded me of the Spanish word olfatear, which is related to olfactory.

Oh, very good.

And it means to sniff, but it also means to pry into.

So that’s a great example.

Sniffing around other people’s business.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah, good stuff.

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