The 501

COMMENTARY

HANABA MUNN WELCH

Raise your hand if you think you might be neurotic.

Raise your other hand if you don’t know what it means.

It’s a crazy word. As a child, I wondered what it meant when my mother said it. Now my husband says it. I’m still wondering.

ExceptIlookeditup,soIsortofknow.The catch-all word peaked in popularity in the early 1950s (when my mother said it in front ofmylittleears).Theu…