I used to watch the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians constantly. At the part where Nanny calls Roger a "blooming hero", I couldn't understand her acccent and thought she called him a "bloomineero"--whatever that is.

Jo

I used to believe that the phrase "the whole kit and caboodle" was "the whole kitten caboodle". Based on that, I thoought that "caboodle" must mean a litter of kittens, especially a large one. Like if a mother cat had, say, eight kittens in a single litter, it might be said that she really had quite a caboodle of kittens.

Stephanie

When I was little, I used to sleep in my Mom's room -- that is, the master bedroom. The door to the master bedroom was actually in the living room, so activity taking place in the living room and kitchen area could easily be heard from the master bedroom, but speech always sounded very muffled. When I was very little, probably about preschool age, I can remember waking up in my Mom's bed after my Mom and sisters were already awake, hearing their muffled conversation through the door, and concluding that my family spoke a different language in the morning -- but they only used it when I wasn't around. I'd often sit up in bed and listen to their strange "language," trying to decipher words and figure out what they meant,

Anna

One day when I was walking outside with my mom, we saw some dragonflies or something flying around and I asked her what they were. She said "Oh, just some type of fly." Later on when we saw them again I said "Look, Mama, it's a typafly!!" I thought that was the name of them- 'typa-fly'

Anon

That "This morning" was "The Smorning"
And "This afternoon" was "The Safternoon"

Yeah....

Anon

I though that there were a certain amount of words, say a million, that I had available to use before I died. I was a quiet kid

Jude

My Mom always used the phrase "For all intensive purposes" when I was growing up, and (of course) I picked it up too. When I was around 25 years old or so, I learned the correct phrase is "For all intents and purposes". I thought, wow, Mom's been saying it wrong all these years, but I never said anything to her about it. About 5 years later, she was watching Wheel of Fortune, and the puzzle solution was "For all intents and purposes". She said,"Heh! Well I'll be damned! I've been saying it wrong for all these years! " She was around 60 at the time.

Joe

I was introduced to the idea of "soldiers" before "shoulders". The soldiers I knew wore red tunics, bearskins and marched in tight formations. When I found out, via a sweater that my grandmother had knitted for me, that the area between my neck and the top of my arm was in fact a "soldier" I was mystified. For some time I couldn't get the image of a small soldier in bearskin and red tunic sitting on each of my shoulders out of my mind and reasoned that this must've been the origin of the word.

Lee, England

For the longest time, I thought "granite" was the same word as "granted", so I thought that when somebody was "taking you for granted" it meant that you were going with them to collect rocks in the forest or something.

kitten

I used to think that "lagoon" and "legume" were the same word. I thought a lagoon was so called because it is roughly shaped like a pea pod.

Valerie

As a child my father used to fix his car with a tool called a ratchet, I always thought he was saying "pass the rat sh*t" I always gave a confused look and meandered off incase I got wrong for knowing what a sh*t was. or even worse, had to actually pick it up!

becca

I used to believe that the word 'circumstances' was pronounced 'circus dancers'.

Mel

When I was little I would always get confused with the words homo and hobo. One day, while in NYC, I saw a man sleeping on a bench. To my mother's horror I exclaimed, "Look! A homo!" and recieved many puzzled stares. I haven't mixed them up since.

Anon

This isn't mine, but my sister's. My sister is 5 and she recently saw the commercial for genital herpes. Well, I guess she figured "genital" was "genetic," because when my grandparents were over she proudly whispered to them: "I have genital dyslexia."

NO THANKS

When I was a very young girl I talked a lot and people would make me feel bad by saying how much I talked and that I should talk less. My grandmother heard this and told me this... "Don't worry people who talk a lot never have bad breath because the germs can't live in a mouth that is always moving." I believed this and I always thought that the priest at my church had very bad breath so he must not talk alot. I then proceeded to tell him that he should talk more so his breath wouldn't stink so much. :( Needless to say I got in trouble.

Noel

One day when I was about 7 or 8 my guy friend from across the street came over. He was always bragging about anything he could think of, so one day I told him I could speak Cherokee, he asked me to prove it and I just blurted out some random made up words. My dad had been BBQing just a few feet away and when I stopped "talking" he said "Pretty good Cherokee sweetie."
After that I had completely convinced my friend that I could speak Cherokee, and my dad had convinced me that I could too.

I was about 11 when I finally figured out that he was kidding.

Little Lies Alot

I had only heard the name of the combo Hall and Oates, so I thought their name was Haulin' Oats -- like what you do if you have to take your oats across town. It was associated in my mind with hauling ass, and it wasn't until college until I figured out my mistake when I said to a friend, "Hey, the show starts in ten minutes. We better haul oats."

Barbara

I was certain that "earwigs" were basically toupees you wear on your ears.

Anon

When I was little, I thought "navy" meant dark, because "navy blue" was a dark shade of blue. I didn't know what the navy was. So one time, when trying to describe a sort of forest green color, I called it "navy green".

When my uncle (who I was describing the color to) corrected me, I tried to cover up by saying "I knew that, but navy *also* means dark, like Navy Blue." I thought he wouldn't know any better. :P

Anon

My Dad would always say 'well cut my sock'if I or any other family members told him anything interesting or remarkable. I was 25 when I realised his favourite expression was actually a spoonerism for 'suck my cock'. Oh the long lost innocence of youth.

Geoff