There was a short story I read ages ago in some collection somewhere I’ve been dying to find. I think it was from the 60s or 70s, but a scientist brings a man from the future and the man is just a normal guy, so he can’t explain anything to the scientist’s satisfaction and the scientist gets more and more exasperated.
The dialogue was like:
“What is the dominant mode of transport in the future?”
“Oh, we fleem.”
“Fleem? What’s fleem?”
“It’s a kind of garbol but with more slimp.”
“Okay, never mind. How do you do it?”
“Oh, that’s easy, you simply merfingle the blem and you’re fleeming away!”