language: reading

I was confused by the word "lowly". One of the earliest places I saw it was in a Neopets mini-game where you collected fictional fruits called "Neggs" and the lowest value one was the happy negg, stated in the description as the "lowly happy negg". I thought "lowly" was pronounced with the ow rhyming with cow and it meant "happy".

I used to believe that "tranquilizer" was short for "tranquilizer dart".

I used to believe…

When I was a child, I used to believe Sherlock Holmes was a real person. But I learned that he is just an imaginary character.

I saw a truck that said "non-potable water" on it. Not knowing that word, I thought it said "non-PORTABLE water", and wondered how they could transport it in a truck if it's not portable.

I used to think that "boobies" was a bad word all the time

I used to think that when you saw comments from 'the Guardian' on the back of kids books, it was somebodys guardian saying their child enjoyed the book, as I didn't know it was a newspaper.

I used to think the Guardian newspaper was named after someone's guardian, and when I saw comments from the Guardian on the back of books that I read as a kid, I thought it was someone's guardian saying their child enjoyed the book.

I used to believe the letters were squiggles and each squiggle represented a word.

I used to think people read books because of that overwhelming smell of the pages that you can bury your nose in, rather than the actual subject!

I used to think Jane Austen was related to the Bronte sisters, maybe like their cousin or step/half-sister.

I thought the word lackadaisical was something to do with lacking daisies.

I used to believe…

When I was learning to read, I pronounced "fire" as "fury" and "crocodile" as "croco-DEE-lay".

I used to believe…

This one is actually my uncle. He lived with Granny and Granddad and my mother and aunt in a house next to a butcher's shop or something that had "hydra" written on the sign.
My uncle couldn't read back then and thought that the sign had his name on them.

I used to get "jaw" confused with "palm."

I used to believe…

When I was about twelve or thirteen, my mother was reading me The Odyssey, and at one point, Queen Penelope has these men who want to marry her because they think Odysseus is dead, and they say, "We'll draw lots". I didn't know what that meant, so I thought it meant they'd draw (as in sketch) a lot of Odysseuses.

I learned about opposites from Sesame Street and naturally assumed EVERYTHING in the world had to have an opposite. Spanish was the opposite of English, the sun was the opposite of the moon, candy was the opposite of vegetables, recess was the opposite of classtime, rollerblades were the opposite of bicycles, and cats were the opposite of dogs.