The Word the Slang Found First (Grundle)

Lyrics

Some words, they come down from a mountain.
Dressed in white coats, holding clipboards.
They got Greek parents and a long Latin name.
And then there's the other words.
The ones that crawl out of the drain in the locker room floor.
This is about one of them.

Back in 1858, some clever fella.
Henry Gray, with his book full of pictures.
He drew the whole works, every pipe and every wire.
And he pointed to that bit of no-man's-land...
you know the one...
and he called it the Perineum.
"The space included within the outlet of the pelvis."
Sounds like a legal document, don't it?
A word that's never been sweaty a day in its life.

But the race was on, though the doctors never knew it.
A hundred-year head start, and the textbook still blew it.
'Cause the boys in the cheap seats, the lads on the bus...
they needed a word that was more like... us.
And slang found the grundle first.
Yeah, the Greek caught up. But slang found the grundle first.

Fast forward. Ohio. 1992.
A Tuesday afternoon, sky's a pale, bored blue.
Smell of chlorine, and cheap deodorant failing.
Steam on the windows. The coach is still wailing about the game.
And some kid, all elbows and acne...
slips on a wet towel, and says a word.
Not from a book.
Just... grundle.
And it hangs in the air. Perfect. Ugly. Real.

But the race was on, though the doctors never knew it.
A hundred-year head start, and the textbook still blew it.
'Cause the boys with the cheap haircuts, the lads on the bus...
they needed a word that felt more like... us.
And slang found the grundle first.
Oh, the Greek caught up. But slang found the grundle first.

And the best part is... for a while there, in the Midwest...
you could grundle.
It meant to stumble. To trip over your own feet.
Which is just about right, isn't it?
A word for the awkward space...
and a word for the awkward move.
A word that knew its own job.

You hear 'perineum' on the telly now. In some hospital drama.
Sounds important. Sounds clean.
But the real word...
the one that won the race...
is still out there.
Muttering in the back row.
Smirking.