What word did you completely misunderstand when you were a kid?

[begin_within]

I completely misunderstood "nostalgia." I thought it was some sort of disease of the nose.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Penultimate - I thought it meant "beyond ultimate"

It wasn't until I was in college I found out the truth.

[IsIt1984Yet]

2. Do you remember the diet supplement called AYDS?

I remember being very confused when A.I.D.S. was all over the news... thinking there was some correlation.



"I was overweight and couldn't control it, AYDS helped me..."

[begin_within]

4. Yes I remember those commercials. I bet that put them out of business!

[IsIt1984Yet]

8. Yup. Check it out....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayds

Unfortunately, public awareness of the disease AIDS beginning around mid-1981 caused problems for the brand due to the similarity of names. Initially sales were not affected, but by 1988 the chairman of Dep Corporation announced that the company was seeking a new name because sales had dropped as much as 50 percent due to publicity about the disease

[AlCzervik]

3. From hearing my mother i thought "Jesusmaryanjoseph" was one person

try and imagine that be yelled at volume 11.

[begin_within]

5. My Dad used to say he was going to beat the bejesus out of me, and I

therefore thought that bejesus was a legitimate word, for a while.

[Heidi]

6. "Behave."

"But mama, I'm bein' have."

[jobycom]

14. I still think you don't know the meaning of that word.

Just a hunch.

[Heidi]

24. .

[jobycom]

30. You know

That smilie just encourages me.

[Heidi]

31. Oh, thanks for the heads-up.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[jobycom]

32. Nobody liked my suggestion in that thread.

[Heidi]

33. "Repopulate" was the

deal-breaker with me. Sounds like it involves childbirth.

[jobycom]

34. Pshew.

Like that hurts me? Duh.

[Heidi]

35. Pssssssssssst.

Your sensitive side is showing.

[jobycom]

36. You exposed it

with the wedgie smilie!

[murielm99]

38. My daughter used to say that.

[tinfoil tiaras]

7. allergic-i thought it meant you just didn't like something

for example, I would say "I cant eat that salad. I'm allergic to salad" *now I do like salad...alot.*

[jobycom]

15. My daughter used it that way, too. Some of her friends' parents' still

think she's allergic to nuts.

[tinfoil tiaras]

22. Haha, aw.

Childhood...good times...

[Ava]

9. delirious

i thought delirious meant funny.. i got it and hillarious mixed up.

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Escalator (age 4)

Thought it was "alligator". When I knew I was going to have to take the escalator, I was sure it could eat me if it wanted to.

[begin_within]

12. That's funny!

[LaurenG]

11. Yes "Fire"

The neighbors were talking about a woman they fired and I thought it was horrible. I couldn't fathom what the lady had do that warranted being burned up.

[begin_within]

13. Also "divulge."

I didn't know what "divulge" was, just that it was something awful, nasty and creepy.

[jobycom]

16. It's a wonder you didn't grow up to be a Republican!

[skygazer]

17. Guerrilla

My parents would discuss guerrilla warfare (Vietnam era) and I had a vivid mental image of rampaging gorillas. Seemed quite horrifying to me.

[begin_within]

21. Now that you mention it, yes, I had that exact same confusion.

[RagingInMiami]

43. Yes, me too

It wasn't my parents, but this older kid in my neighborhood, the brother of my best friend, who would start throwing rocks at us and yell out "gorilla warfare", meaning we had to throw rocks back at him.

It wasn't until a few years later that I learned the word "guerilla" and realized what he meant.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. Penal - like "penal system" or "penal code" -

I knew it related to law somehow, but I was also sure that the word derived from "penis" somehow, and that, therefore, I wasn't allowed to say it.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

19. We Three Kings of Orient Are

I thought was

We Three Kings are Orrie and Art.

I always wondered who the third king was.

[last_texas_dem]

37. I thought it was Orientarr!

Like, the kings were coming from the faraway land of Orientarr! As for the "Star Spangled Banner" I probably don't even want to know how much I messed up that one when I was a kid.

[RagingInMiami]

50. I used to sing

"Jose, can you see"

[acmavm]

20. It was my Mom's fault. She'd use the phrase 'worthless as tits on a board'

Now, I could understand why they would be worthless sort of. But not why they would be on a board.

When I got older and someone used that phrase but with the word boar, I said 'oh'.

[mockmonkey]

23. Penis

When I was really young my Mom would try to explain to me where babies came from and when she said the word "penis" I thought she was saying "peanuts" and I would giggle and laugh all the way through.

[NNadir]

25. Believe it or not, "rape."

I grew up in the 50's, where sexual knowledge was not generally second nature to children. When I heard the word "rape," I thought it involved looking at a naked woman without her permission. I had no idea of the existence of sex until I was at least 11 years old.

[RagingInMiami]

44. I used to get raped and raked confused

I would hear my mother talk about rape in a way that I knew a man had violated a woman. But I thought it meant that he attacked her with a rake. Very viciously.

[bertha katzenengel]

26. I was going to reply, but then I saw the image you posted under

your message. What is that supposed to be?

[begin_within]

48. just a joke

[bertha katzenengel]

55. Gotcha. My word was "hydrink." As in, "fire hydrink." The thing that

firefighters get water out of.

[Beware the Beast Man]

27. When I was 6 or 7, there was a commercial on TV warning on

the dangers of marijuana.


I thought it was some South American paramilitary group.

[Mutley]

28. I thought the word "adolescent" had something to do with

virginity. This is, of course, before I really understood what a virgin was. Or an adolescent.

[Redstone]

29. Many of them. Because I read so many words before I ever heard them

spoken. But that was more a problem of mispronunciation than misunderstanding.

Redstone

[murielm99]

39. Elbow grease

When my dad said to put some elbow grease into something, I wanted to look around for a jar or container of the stuff. I never asked where the jar was, because I did not want to appear stupid.

[wickerwoman]

40. "Approximately"- thought it meant exactly.

I was over 20 before I figured it out too... D'oh!

[NMMNG]

41. When I was around 10 a friend mentioned the word

"faggot". I asked her what the word meant as I'd never heard it before (this was in 1978 in a small town after all). She told me that it was a man who wore clogs. Until I got a few years older I continued to believe that's all it was. Of course some gay men do wear clogs, but there's a whole lot more to it than that.


Edited for clarity.

[RagingInMiami]

42. That made me laugh out loud

"Disease of the nose".

On that note, I used to think "rhinoplasty" was the art of mounting a rhinosaurus' head on a wall.

[distantearlywarning]

45. Chartreuse.

I knew it was a color word, but I thought it was a kind of red. Somebody had to explain to me that it was green and I didn't believe them.

Even today I still think the word chartreuse sounds like a red word, and doesn't match green at all.

[begin_within]

47. For years I thought "chanteuse" and "chartreuse" were somehow two aspects

of the same thing...

[valerief]

59. Great liqueur! n/t

[Jazz2006]

60. Me, too.

For whatever reason, I always associate it with red, not green.

It just "sounds" red.

Lol.

[trof]

46. soldier - shoulder

Had a lot of trouble with confusing those.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

49. Iron Curtain

I was about 4 when I first heard it. Thanks to all the National Geos and maps around the house, I knew where the countries were that Churchill was talking about. But I didn't know it was a "phrase" and took it literally, imagining a clothes line with this stiff shiny material along the borders of eastern Europe.

[grannylib]

51. Impotent. at first I thought people mispronounced 'important' and then

when I saw it in writing, I assumed it meant 'without power' without making any sexual connection.

Same thing with 'autistic' I just thought people were mispronouncing 'artistic'

[NewWaveChick1981]

52. Assorted. I thought it was "asteroid".

[mzteris]

53. "civil service", "little ducks", and naive. . .

Ok - so a couple are phrases.....

My dad was in the "Civil Service" - I thought he was a SPY until I was practically in jr. high.

My mom used to say "do this (or don't do that) or it's LITTLE DUCKS!" I kept trying to figure out what ducklings had to do with it. I was in high school before I figured out it literally meant DUCKING OUT OF THE WAY!


Naive - I thought it meant you really knew everything but just "pretended" to be innocent.

[jberryhill]

54. "misled"

I always read it as "my-zld", and approximately understood it as defrauding someone. I never understood why I never heard the word in conversation until I read it one day and was trying to think of other words that would fit better, and wondered why the author didn't use "mis-led". Then it hit me.

[libnnc]

56. When I was little and when my mother was stressed out....

I used to tell her to "unlax Mom".

[undeterred]

57. deny -- which I prounounced Denny

I don't denny it.

[u4ic]

58. Petunia

thought it was a fish sandwich.

[Broken_Hero]

61. Whatchamacallit....

I thought this was a family name...you know, Whatchamacallit...I thought half our town was related to the Watchamacallits....

[begin_within]

62. Our grocery store used to advertise "Homo Milk"

Which terrified me because at that point I didn't know who I was, and that sign was putting it right out there in public.

[Joe Fields]

63. Growing up catholic, I mistook the word "vacation" for vatican, when

I was six years old.

[Kailassa]

64. When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of adult books,

but I didn't always understand everything in them.

So when I stayed with some very strict Catholic friends I was terrified of going to mass with them, having read about what Catholics do there. However I summoned up all my courage, and went to church with them, wearing no undies, because they would only get in the way when it was time to pee in front of the altar. I was so relieved to find that they didn't actually do that, but I was curious. So at lunch afterwards I asked if they ever did genuflect in front of the altar, only to be told they always did.

I was puzzled for years, until I thought to look genuflect up in a dictionary and realized I'd misunderstood the word.

I learnt there that no amount of care can stop a foot-in-the-mouther like me from upsetting people. These kind country folk asked me which part of the roast chicken I'd prefer, and, realizing that the one chook had to feed 13 people, I asked for the smallest piece I could think of .... the pope's nose. (the tail) They had always called it the parson's nose, and were sure I'd changed the name to make fun of their religion.

Getting typsy on their punch at a party when I was 16 was not a good idea either. I didn't realize there might be a difference between the kiddies' fruity fizz our Anglican friends called punch, and the huge bowl beside the doorway of this hospitable Irish Catholic home, into which every new arrival would pour the contents of whatever bottle they had brought. It did taste awful yummy though.

And if I'd been a little more worldly, instead of an aspergers kid with a love of any religious discussion, I might have known to not suggest to the equally naive young trainee priest I was talking to that, as it was too noisy to talk properly in there, we find ourselves somewhere quieter. We lay side by side in the barn for hours, discussing various religions and why we each had the beliefs we had. When we noticed the house lights were going off and visitors were leaving, we trotted back inside, hay all over our hair and clothing, innocently oblivious to the horrified stares we were causing.

And, many years later, when my 16 year old daughter and her boyfriend returned at 6 in the morning and she said, "we didn't do anything, really, we were just talking and talking and suddenly the sky was getting light," she was surprised that I completely believed her.

Some things just run in the family.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

65. My mom and her friends were forever going on diets

and I wanted badly to go along.

[caty]

66. "No" and "Don't do that".

Add on "don't go there" and "don't hang around with her/him/them."