Category: LEARNIN’

So yesterday BJ Dude comes home from school and gets on my laptop.  A few minutes later, he comes over to me and says, “Hi MaMa!  MaMa is how you say ‘Mom’ in Greek.  I really like Greek.  I memorized the Greek alphpabet and  I want to learn Greek.”

Then he goes back to the computer and starts memorizing more words.  Pretty good for a 12 year old, I guess.

So I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s time for him and I to start learning a language together.  I really think this kid could have a few languages under his belt by the time he graduates from high school.   Pretty amazing!

This morning BJ Dude was giving me a run down on the elastic bracelets on his wrist.  He had a red, yellow, and blue one.  They each had character trait words on them.

He pointed to the blue one first.  “I don’t care if the word ‘honesty’ is up or _____.”  Pointing to the yellow, he said, “I don’t care which word is up on this one either.  But the RED one.  I will only leave the word ‘leadership’ up on this one.  This other word….Ten…a…..city….is just dumb.  Why would they put a word like that on there.”

Quickly glancing over, I noticed the word, “tenacity” printed on it.  I quickly said, “sweetheart, the word is ‘tenacity’, not ten-a-city.  Tenacity is a good word.  It means that someone has the courage and determination to get a job done even if it is difficult.”

By the time we pulled up to school, he said, “Now I don’t care which word the red one is on.”

I told him to look it up in the dictionary when he got to school.

One thing about this kid, I look up more words on dictionary.com than I ever imagined.  He wants to know what every word means.  Now think about that.  Some words you just understand what they mean, but when you have to articulate a definition, it gets a little shaky and your parent credibility waivers.  Thank heavens for dictionary.com!  It has saved me on more than one occasion.   And just so you know, here is the definition for tenacity…..

“The act of being tenacious.”  Ok, so look up tenacious…..

Ten-na-cious  [tuh-ney-shuhs]

1.  holding fast; characterized by keeping a firm hold (often fol. by of): a tenacious grip on my arm; tenacious of old habits.

2. highly retentive: a tenacious memory.

3.  pertinacious, persistent, stubborn, or obstinate.

4.  adhesive or sticky; viscous or glutinous

5.  holding together; cohesive; not easily pulled asunder; tough.

Aren’t we all increasing our vocabulary better these day?  Just keep checking back here for more.

Shotgun and Cinco were playing with a bunch  of pirate stuff we brought home for Halloween costumes.  Shotgun came in the dining room swinging his sword.  He was all dressed up.  MP said, “Hey it’s Sunday!  So you better be Ammon with that sword and not Blackfoot.”

I whispered, “I think you mean Blackbeard!  You’re not going for the Indian tribe are you??”

Pirates and Indian Tribal names can get really confusing for some people.  History gets mixed up with movies and myths all the time.  Especially at our house.  Then there’s all those Star Wars and Star Trek civilizations.  It’s just too much to keep up with sometimes.

Fortunately, MP came up with a scripture name that I was familiar with.  I actually thought it was funny that he told him he’d better be Ammon (a great man from the scriptures), it being Sunday and all, but then Blackfoot came out of his mouth.  That made it REALLY funny!

Written 10/12/03

This record is from August 4, 2002 when I first started recording Malapropisms.

I started noticing malapropisms ran in the family when Mr. Perfect’s brother told us following a dentist appointment of his that he had an “incestuous” tooth.  Yep.  It raised my eyebrows, too.

Then my daughter, Blondie, wrote on her English report following the 9/11 attacks that our country was having a problem with “tourism.”    Now that could be true in large part due to the “terrorism” that she was meaning to say.

Sam told us that he overheard some kids talking about him and a girl sitting together in the library.  MP responded, “What?  Are you guys an OBJECT now?”  (Most puppy-lover’s are referred to as an “Item” for those of you who missed that one.)

During this week of August 2002, MP and I were looking over the plans for our cabin to see where we wanted electrical outlets and switches and such.  MP pointed to an area in the loft by the stairs and said, “You can put one of those “tofu” beds here.”

Of course, I responded with “Tofu?”

Realizing that he must have said it wrong, he said, “What is it?  TooFawn?”

Starting to laugh even harder, I responded, “TooFawn?”  I let him suffer for a minute before I told him the word he was looking for……FUTON!

However, we do speak fondly of Tofu couches all the time now.

The reason for sharing our Malapropisms is simple.  There are a few people at my house that are fluent in them.  They have a knack for coming up with a whole different word than what is meant.  Among the leaders is Mr. Perfect, the Counter top Man, Malaprop Man.  He’s good at it, too.  His daughter, Blondie, ranks a close second.  However, there are others who join in the ranks.  I’m sure I’ve done it a time or two myself, but Mr. Perfect has it down to a science.  Thus, I will share with you our best Malapropisms over the years along with the date I originally wrote them.  Prepare yourself for a new vocabulary.

I guess I should start with the first malapropism I ever heard from him.  MP was serving an LDS Church Mission in Germany.  He had sent home a birthday card to my little sister telling her she was a “cute and a sweat girl.”

We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that over the years.  Every once in a while, he wraps me in his arms and says, “I love you, sweatheart.”  Yep, he’s a romantic!  And he’s funny.   And he’s mine!