language

I used to believe…

When I was younger I loved potpouri. But I always confused potpouri with diarhea, so I would go around stores chanting, "Diarhea! Diarhea!" because I always got excited when I saw a bag of potpouri. (I think I thought this because I pronounced potpouri as poperia, so it sounded like diarhea to me! And to this day I still pronounce it as poperia.)

I used to get the words 'twat' and 'twit' mixed up. I called my sister a twat in front of my mother once, and she was quite suprised, saying "I don't think you meant to use that word." I proudly proclaimed, "I *like* the word twat!" and skipped off to my room.

I used to believe…

When I was little I thought that the weight measurement "pounds" were different from "lbs." I thought lbs was pronounced lubs, and got a good laugh when I explained this to my family.

I used to believe…

When I was around 8 I thought the word rape was rake and I wondered how you would rake someone.

I used to believe…

My cousin walks up to my grandmother and myself and said "I can spell trashcan, B.F.I." We both bust in to laughter and then try to explain to her that B.F.I. is a company, not the way you spell trashcan.
That same cousin also thought sec. (as in second)and sex were the same word.

I once saw a sign that used to the word 'Prohibited" and I asked my dad what he meant. He said it meant it was forbidden.
So for the next few years I believed the word "prohibited" was pronounced "forbidden". It wasn't until I was reading a sign aloud that a friend of mine asked why I said "forbidden" instead of "prohibited" and I realised that they were actually separate words.

I used to believe…

After hearing a comedy/parody show where the superheroes referred to their nemeses as "evil fie-ends" I honestly believed for YEARS that the word "fiend" was pronounced "Fie-end". It was highly embarassing when at age 12 my friend pointed out that I'd been mispronouncing it.

I used to believe…

when i was in second grade my friend accidently flipped me off, but neither of us relized it meant anything so my other friend who saw this told me that if i got flipped 1 billion times i would drop dead and i went home crying to my mom

i used to think 20 was the highest number. i would make my mom count to twenty since i actually couldnt, and then say "and thats the highest number!" my parents soon corrected me.

I was about 6 or 7 and was given a book of simple French words. I spent ages trying to work out the code which governed the translation, e.g. if hello was merci, then h=m, e=e, l=r etc. depending on where the letters were in the word. I used to make up my own languages on this basis.

I still do have too much fascination with words - I study linguistics.

I used to believe…

This isn't mine (seriously!) but I knew a guy who, when he was about 12, still thought the word "fuck" just meant the same thing as "shit", as I discovered when he told me a bird had fucked on his coat.

I used to believe…

While I was growing up, my Mother's approach to swearing and 'rude' words was to explain the meanings of each one... from Prat: pregnant goldfish & Dork: Whale's penis right through to the more biologically unacceptable ones. It worked to a large degree - I never tell people to 'Bugger Off,' etc. mainly because as I do so I picture what I'm actually telling them to do! *Yuk!*

However, she came to a stumbling block when the word 'Bastard' entered my vacabulary... she was called up by the school one day by the head master and asked to do something about my behaviour - I was merrily running about, proudly boasting to all & sundry about what a Bastard I was! *g*

:-)

I used to believe…

My best friend's mum is called Anne, and when I was small I used to call her Antique Anne. I didn't know what antique meant - but she wasn't very happy because she thought I was that she was very old!

I used to believe…

At my primary school we had to take it in turns to read part of a story out of a book, and then we'd go through some of the longer words and say what they meant. During my turn, I came across the word "cupboard". I didn't know that cupboard was spelt like that, so I pronounced it as "cup board". The teacher asked me if I knew what it meant, and I said it was a board that you hung cups on, and that we had one at home. Oh, the shame.

I used to believe…

It wasn't me but my grandmother used to believe that everybody spoke Catalan and Sapnish. And thus she would say things like: How intelligent the Brittish children are, they are so little and they already speak English!

I used to believe…

When I was young, I thought that the word "utter", when spoken, was acutally "udder." So, I was often confused when adults would say phrases such as "an utter embrassment." I always wondered why a cow's udder would be embarrassed....