President Biden seemed unaware of the taunt's meaning, telling the caller "I agree." Jill Biden, however, rolled her eyes in apparent disgust.

In my high-school French class, we would tell our teacher, "Quelle belle journée!" which we had all agreed would be taken as "this class stinks." If nothing else, it brought laughs that Mlle. Donzella could never figure out.

Lawmakers know that a reference to "my friend," means "that jerk across the aisle." Merchants are fond of using "convenience fee" as code for charges that are unfair and inconvenient.

In the movie "The Money Pit" (1986), Tom Hanks learns that when contractors say a job would take "about two weeks," it means at least two months.

In hospitals, a page for "Doctor Firestone" means there's a fire in the building. At sea, "Code Oscar" indicates a person is overboard. In the air, "Operation Rising Star" signals that a passenger has died.

In our office I could never understand why my assistant was so frequently asked about the weather. Seems her answers — cloudy, sunny, etc. — were code to describe my mood that day.

When my sister, Patricia, begins a sentence, "No offense, but..." she's about to say something truly offensive.

Some verbal coding is as simple as adding a single letter. If my wife, Amy, calls out "Pete," I'm fine, but when I hear "Peter!" I know I'm in trouble.

At a joke-tellers club, everyone already knew the jokes. Members saved time by calling out jokes by number. When a member hollered, say, "14," everyone laughed; "22," even bigger laughs. Then a new member tried "22" and there was silence. "What happened?" he asked. One veteran explained: "You didn't tell it right."

(c) Peter Funt. This column originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.