Words Meme

Before I left for that songwriting workshop, I was thinking about a post like this. It had faded from my intentions, but then Kate linked to a curling article on Ed Willett's blog. Ed Willett! I remember him talking science on CBC radio in Mom's kitchen. (Er, was it that long ago? I haven't listened to CBC much since.) I was browsing down his wonderfully eclectic blog, and came upon another curling article. Like me, he had people from down south wondering what curling is. And he quipped: "Wait'll I write about sippin' Vi-Co down by the slough, in the shade of a poplar bluff."

At the songwriting workshop, they told us that the craft of songwriting is universal, but when you change genres or markets or even singers, you have to learn a new vocabulary.

I got much of my vocabulary through my voracious teenage reading habit, guessing meanings by context and pronunciations by sheer guts. My meme idea came to me when I was writing "misled," and doubting my spelling because I was hearing in my mind a different word - the one I used to hear whenever I saw that spelling: "MY-zuhld." To me it meant something like "bamboozled" (whatever that means!).

So here's the meme challenge (my answers are below):

Words Meme
1. Some reading pronunciations you've had.
2. Some words you've used wrong (and the consequences!).
3. Favourite obscure words.
4. Words with local meanings that confuse them outsiders.

My answers:

1. Some reading pronunciations you've had.

misled = MY-zuhld
awry = AH-ree
(I still like these better than the correct ones.)

2. Some words you've used wrong (and the consequences!).

(Blush) There was this word that I had heard applied affectionately to a woman's male companion of choice. I was in university, going steady with my first-ever boyfriend. I still remember the raised eyebrow I got when I referred to him as my "hubby."

3. Favourite obscure words.

infructescence
nugatory: of no consequence whatsoever

4. Words with local meanings that confuse them outsiders.

See the quote from Ed Willett above. My Mom used to tell the story of her parents' first visit to the prairies from Toronto. Mom was playing tour guide on the drive home to the farm, pointing out all the things to see. There was something "over by that bluff," but her father just couldn't see any bluffs at all.

If you've got a word in your mind right now - Tag! You're it. The object of the game is to post your own answers on your own blog and then run back here and post a comment that you've done it. See if you can be the first one back (but make it good!).