I am forever looking for the deepest meanings in words. The layer below. The strong undertow of implied meaning. Or that gentle tug on emotion. Those lyric little beauties. But sometimes it is the sheer whimsy of words that catches my breath. That breezy brush over the surface of life that flutters the heart and releases a big ole belly laugh.
Take for example the time I took my daughter to buy hiking boots for an upcoming school trip to Yosemite. As we pulled into the parking lot of the sports store, she looked across at an opposing shoe store and blurted out, “I wonder if they have any at that Shoe Pavy-lon over there.” I failed to suppress my chuckle. Being very smart, very quick and very sensitive she corrected herself immediately, “Shoe Pa-vill-yun.”
Then playing short course golf with my young son (our bonding exercise of choice) on the 7th hole we came across a majestic white bird and he said, “Look at that egg-rhett.” I stifled a laugh (as he is even more sensitive than his sister) and said, “I believe it’s pronounced Eee-gret.” ”Nope. Egg-rhett,” he replied emphatically. I realized the early stages of trench digging, the locking into a position no matter what the cost. So I dropped the subject and the ensuing putt and everyone left happy.
Being too lazy (i’m certain it was more of a sudden swoon of laconicity rather than my general nature) to walk the 20 feet across the room to pick up the phone and since I had my headset on and was sitting in front of my computer I decided to place a call home to my folks on Skype and catch up. After a short conversation I casually mentioned I was calling on my computer. My Mom perked up. Her good friend from Israel, Dahlia, had recently asked her to get Skype so they could talk and she insisted I explain this strange and magical technology to her. After running down the skinny, she said she would straight away get on ’snipe’. ”Now, once again, that’s snipe dot com, right,” she confirmed. I think she could hear my laughter all the way in Tennessee without the assistance of Snipe, uh, I mean Skype.
Anyway, have you ever been snipe hunting? If not please let me know so I can explain it to you in detail. It is truly a once in a lifetime experience!
Also, do you have any whimsical stories about words gone awry or astray of their intended meanings? Please do share.
17 Responses
My husband is much like you in catching cute little errors of annunciations. Sometimes I catch them too. I can just see your son with his stiffened posture of indignation. LOL My youngest was much like that. My stepson still pronounces “cinnamon” simonom. LOL BUT I would have to say “Bashegetti” is my favorite.
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
ah yes, the infamous baskegetti
i love that word also
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Funny! Funny Blog!
My mom mixes up “new words” all the time.. and it always cracks me up.
When McCain says the word Washington.. he pronounces it WAR-shington… bums me out every time:/ I think it’s what lost him the election;)
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
nah, mccain lost cause he couldn’t spell potatoe
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Yep… Snipe hunting was a regular activity in Cub Scouts back in the day!!! (Good thing we didn’t use guns!!!! LOL)
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Once, when my niece was about four, she was going on and on about different animals and combined the words “chicken” and “hippopotamus,” which of course gave us the famous “chickenpotamus.” I still tease her about it to this day.
I’m always amused when adults use words improperly and have no clue that they’re doing it. For instance, it’s great to hear people say “take it for granite.” Another one that gets me is “supposably.” I frequently see that one written on message boards.
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
i have a blog about a cabbit which i will post soon
cross between a cat and a rabbit
supposably
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
http://www.hsaeducator.com/index.php/HSAeducator-Blog/Poo-On-Your-Shoe-No-Health-Savings-Account-For-You21.html
The blog buried in the url above should be intriguing enough to cut and paste…
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
When my oldest daughter was in 4th grade she signed all of her letters…”Sinceriously”. And that she was/is! The lawyer kid of mine…
And then…there’s always phone sex words turned comical..lol!
words words words…
Posted on November 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I remember being with a group of friends and had cause to say to one of them, “Don’t be so patronising” and he laughed loudly saying, “Surely you’ve got the wrong word there. I would prefer to patronise a pub!” He had a love of sarcasm where he love to put people down.
Everybody realised that he had not heard the word patronising before and laughed at him laughing at me. He sort of turned several shades of red before saying, “I was only joking.” For a good while afterwards his witty sarcasms seem to be less frequent.
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 at 5:55 am
i love a good comeuppance
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 at 5:56 am
Look up egret and you’ll see that while your son’s choice is not the preferred pronunciation, it is acceptable (third choice). So he was not altogether wrong, although he should have said, “Your choice may be the preferred one, but I prefer mine.” I feel the same way about “vase,” which I say vaz (‘a’ as in ‘father’), even though vas (‘a’ as in ‘ace’) and vaz (again ‘a’ as in ‘ace’) are preferred. Oh yeah? By whom?
As for presidential misspeak, no one beats W, who insisted that tourism is a major problem and who has something against certain Scotch whisky companies — the evil Dewar’s.
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 am
ah my son will be overjoyed
vaz
you sound like thurston howell III
Posted on November 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 am
I prefer going to watch the submarine races.
Sex Mahoney for President
Posted on November 24th, 2008 at 6:55 am
That’s it I,m gonna take electricution lessons
Posted on November 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I love it. I am always looking at the layers of meaning in words. My pet peeve is when people misuse “literally.” Very intelligent people like Jim Cramer say things like, “This country is literally falling apart.” Really? Like Pangea or what? Another recent funny misuse is when a guy told me on an on-line dating site that he was domesticated. (He meant he likes to cook and clean.) I’m glad for that and all, but I set my bar a little higher. Keep up the great posts. I would also like to recommend a book: Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose. The author is a genius at digging through layers of meaning.
Posted on November 26th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
you sure he didn’t mean he was from good bovine stock?
Posted on November 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
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