Monday, September 19, 2005

Wordsman

Every now and then, a new word will come along and strike my fancy. One of my regular daily visits is to www.merriamwebster.com. There, one will find a daily word and several word games. I love the word games because they are a fun way to enhance my vocabulary.

Today's word of the day is:
coquetry\KOH-kuh-tree\ noun : a flirtatious act or attitude.

Sometimes, however, a new word is derived from a mispronunciation of another word. We were talking about a word on Saturday. Tammy and I have several words that we pronounce different ways. One of these, that comes to mind right off the top of my head is the name of the fault line that runs in the western part of Kentucky. It is the New Madrid Fault. I pronounce it the way I have heard it pronounced here on the news. That way is New Madrid (Mad-RID). Tammy pronounces it the way she heard it where she was and that is New Madrid (MA-drid).

The word in question on Saturday was "Leviathan". I pronounce it "li-'vI-&-th&n". Tammy pronounced it "li-vI-a-thon". I looked it up, but forgot to show her (how could I forget something so important ?!?).

Sunday evening, I remembered and showed her. We decided that the difference in the pronunciation was merely her country accent. Now, Tammy is really smart. She is a dangerous creature. She is a redneck with brains. She reads 4 or more novels a week. She absorbs knowledge. She has a marvelous memory. We were discussing the difference in the way we said the word, when Kyle overheard (one of his habits is almost overhearing ... He listens in, but usually mis-hears what is said ... He is a wealth of misinformation.) what we were talking about. He came up with the new word because of his mis-hearing.

He said the word he thought we were trying to pronounce. "Leviathong?" he asked.

And there it is ... Leviathong ... Monster drawers.
They are panties for the massive masses. They are the most in the least amount of coverage. Never has so little exposed so much. Get yours today.

The Leviathong !

No comments: