Life Online

I was in a forum the other day and someone used the word “Squee” in one of their posts. Within about 10 minutes, numerous people had responded asking what the heck it meant. While I had a general notion that it was an expression of excitement, I could not give a real definition.

So I headed to my trusty Google <gag> and found lots of articles about a comic by Jhonen Vasquez that is about a boy named Todd, who is nicknamed Squee. A dead end in my case.

I then came across some other sources that hit the nail on the head. Apparently it initially started to sort of mimic the sounds of young girl fans. If you are of my generation, imagine the sound you heard at a New Kids on the Block concert. It is used most often as an expression of excitement or happy surprise. Think “high pitched”.

A few sources tried to say that the word was a combination of other words like “squeal” and “glee” or “squeal” and “pee”. I can see the former but not the latter (although I did asqueal and about pee my pants in excitement when I saw Billy Joel one time).  

I tried to use ”squee” a few times today, but it just doesn’t come across as well when you are speaking as it does online. Here were my attempts:

Attempt 1: “Squee!! The mail is here! I got a Christmas card and no bills.” (Probably my best effort)
Attempt 2: “Squee!! The men who delivered my exercise equipment didn’t ruin the floor like I thought they would.” (Not quite as good)
Attempt 3: “Squee!! I have a can of fruit in the pantry that would be perfect with our chicken sandwiches.” (Yeah, lame)

As you can see, either I am too old to pull off the Squee or I just don’t live a very excited life. But if you find yourself in a blog or forum and are truly excited about something, give the Squee a shot. If you do, be sure to link back to me so that I can take a look.