speaking

At 2nd grade, I changed schools, and in the new school, they called the toilet the "lavatory". I had never heard the word before, and I thought they were saying "laboratory". So on my first day at the new school, when kids said, "May I go to the lavatory?", I wondered where they were going.

I reasoned that if everyone wanted to go there, it must be some kind of room with toys.
After about a week, I finally figured it out. Boy, I was disappointed!

tabi

I used to believe that "lbs" was pronounced a bit like "libs."

Anon

that when someone called someone else a prima donna that they were calling them a pre-madonna



i believed this till i was 16

Britton

When I was little I used to think a suitcase was called a "soupcase". I called it this for many years before I figured it out and no one noticed.

John

when reciting the alphabet, i used to think that "elemeno" was a letter: L-M-N-O

davey

When I was a wee lad me Mum told me that if I called my sister or anyone a "fool" that I would burn in Hell! For years whenever I heard someone call someone else a "fool" I would think "OOooo you're going to burn in Hell"!

Lee Roi

I used to think people spoke word balloons like in comic books, and adults' word balloons were in cursive handwriting.

Amy

For me, the word "skeletons" has always been pronounced "skalingtons".

Jim

When I was little, I thought dump truck was pronounced dumb truck, better yet I thought tow truck was pronounced toad truck. Now I hate trucks.

ben

When I was little I used to call blue jeans "boondeenies".

Amy, WI

When my younger sister was really small (maybe 5), she got in the habit of calling me a 'stupid fuck'. One time, she said that to me and my mom walked in. My mom wasn't exactly happy hearing my sister say that, and to avoid her own embarrassment, she made me tell my sister what 'fuck' meant. Apparently my sister just thought it was another term for a person, but not a 'bad' word. That was the last time she's ever called me that. 

Anon

When sitting in the car one day, my sister complained about the meanings of so many words changing to mean something bad. When asked what she meant, she thought that 'lesbians' used to be what the little imps in Ireland were called!

Anon

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

Anon

When I was about 6 I was so excited about going to the library. I told my Mom "Can I please get that pacific (meaning specific) Harry Potter book?" I thought specific was the same as my "Pacific Blue" Crayola crayon.

Sakura

When i was 9, i went to the graduation of a family friend. I went over to ask my mom why they kept telling people to "come loudly" and why they told some to "mega come loudly". She explained to me that they were saying "Cum Laude" and "Mega Cum Laude" and those were for the people with really good grades. That made less sense to me though since a lot of the people were walking up rather loudly.

Amber

I used to say "Suck My Blue" instead of Sacre bleu. My parents always corrected me and i never realised why.

Meaghan

I grew up in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood, and went to Catholic school. There was a family around the corner who had 3 boys that were mildy retarded. One day I asked my mother why they didn't go to the same school as me and my other friends. My mom said "because they're Jewish", without further explanation. So I made the association that "Jewish" meant "retarded", and it was years before someone cleared it up for me.

bee sting

I used to have the idea that scrimshaw was a card game.

Heather

I used to get lesbians and leprechauns mixed up.

Anon

When I was kid visiting at a friends house with my Parents, and it got late, they would say, well we have to hit the road now, and I thought they were getting ready to go out and slap the pavement.

Joanne