Manwuctus

For my inaugural post here, the origin and proper usage of "manwuctus."

What does Manwuctus mean? The answer is, nothing. It's a nonsense word my cousin uttered on our trip to California. While sitting in the dingy Motel 6 with the space capsule shower, she was idly picking at the thin, garish bedspread when she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I see. They're custom ugly." In addition to the "Motel 6" logos all over them, they were covered with a variety of random non sequitur images.

"Dog, fishing pole..." Charley said.
"A horse, yellow person..." Molly added.
"Oh, and a cactus!" I said.

Molly looked puzzled. "Manwuctus?"

"Manwuctus? The hell is that? I said 'a cactus.' "

But then I decided I kind of liked "manwuctus." So it became our trip word, that we used whenever we couldn't think of the right word, or couldn't use the right word in polite company.

It became "I'll kick you in the manwuctus" or "Ew, my shoes are sticking to some kind of manwuctus on the floor!"

One night, those of us in the younger set (myself and Charley, and 4 or 5 of our cousins) were sitting around. It was late, we were tired, and possibly had had some wine.

"Manwuctuses?"
"Manwucti."
"Oh."
"Manwuction."
"Manwuctization."
"Manwuctable."
"...Manwuctile dysfunction!"

I think that's about when we decided it was time to go to bed.