Sandra Dodd

On facebook one of my kids misspelled something, and I sent a message
on the side, with a quote from etymonline.com

=============================


Subject: "Mellow Drama"

This is wrong, but in a really awesome way: " I'm not mellow dramatic
about it anymore."

God, I LOVE That. But it's melodrama. Melodramatic.

The "melo" is about it being a musical or having music.


melodrama
1802, melodrame, "a stage-play in which songs were interspersed and
music accompanied the action," from Fr. mélodrame, from Gk. melos
"song" (see melody) + Fr. drame "drama" (see drama). Meaning "a
romantic and sensational dramatic piece with a happy ending" is from
1883, since this was often the form of the original melodramas.

==============================

Some thought went into that.

Hema quoted her young daughter, Zoya, on her blog:

Zoya's language usage is as usual unique. She told me the road is
grumpy. I asked her why. She said "can't you feel it?" The road we
were driving on was very bumpy ;-)

When Marty was little he thought we were saying "Fairy dogs" when we
talked about "prairie dogs."

Sometimes the errors are better than the proper understandings.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

BRIAN POLIKOWSKY

Gigi to me when we get something that needs setting up and probably directions
on a manual:
"Lets read the destruction's!!!"



 
Alex Polikowsky


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-Some thought went into that.-=-

I mean some thought went into the decision of how to spell (without
knowing what it looked like) melodrama--not into my response. In
thought went into "grumpy road" and "fairy dog."

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

BRIAN POLIKOWSKY

destruction's!!!"


-=-=-

destructions ( no ' on that!)

It is like when I used to say "Lets make a puzzle"
When I really meant  work on a puzzle.
<G>


 
Alex Polikowsky



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-It is like when I used to say "Lets make a puzzle"
When I really meant work on a puzzle.
<G>-=-

OH MAN, that's a secret aside to me directly, so I must respond. :-)

WORK a puzzle. Not work ON one. Just plain work it. :-)

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

BRIAN POLIKOWSKY

Dang it! 
I thought I had it this time! :)
Work a puzzle!
Work a puzzle.
Work a puzzle.
I got it....

I hope old dogs can learn new tricks! <G> 

Always learning- yep !


 
Alex Polikowsky ( WHo one day will get the English language  mastered!)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Gwen Montoya

I kind of like the way "mellow dramatic" sounds...I'll be pondering
that phrase all day. :-)

Megan used to call Hawaii "Ha-whitey" - it still makes me giggle.

Gwen

On Sunday, August 15, 2010, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -=-It is like when I used to say "Lets make a puzzle"
> When I really meant work on a puzzle.
> <G>-=-
>
> OH MAN, that's a secret aside to me directly, so I must respond. :-)
>
> WORK a puzzle. Not work ON one. Just plain work it. :-)
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

dinapug310

When I was little, I thought the expression "whole wide world" was "whole white world," but it never really made sense to me. I would envision a big white globe, like the earth covered in a cloud, but something always seemed "off" about the whole bit.

I remember a great big, internal "oh" moment when I was able to discern the actual word.

Dina

--- In [email protected], Gwen Montoya <lifeisjustthis@...> wrote:
>
> I kind of like the way "mellow dramatic" sounds...I'll be pondering
> that phrase all day. :-)
>
> Megan used to call Hawaii "Ha-whitey" - it still makes me giggle.
>
> Gwen
>
> On Sunday, August 15, 2010, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -=-It is like when I used to say "Lets make a puzzle"
> > When I really meant work on a puzzle.
> > <G>-=-
> >
> > OH MAN, that's a secret aside to me directly, so I must respond. :-)
> >
> > WORK a puzzle. Not work ON one. Just plain work it. :-)
> >
> > Sandra
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

Renee Boisvert

I love this thread!

My 10 year old, Makayla, came up with some great words when she was younger.
Often she made a lot of sense.
yesterday - "last-er-day"
umbrella - "under-brella"

Then when she was a bit older and learning to ride a bike, she kind of fell
a bit (to a standing position over her tilted bike. She loudly said
"DAMAGE!" It was all I could do not to laugh as I innocently asked her if
something got damaged. She pondered my response and then asked what "damage"
means. That is the closest she has ever come to swearing!

Renee

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:32 AM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:

>
>
> On facebook one of my kids misspelled something, and I sent a message
> on the side, with a quote from etymonline.com
>
> =============================
>
> Subject: "Mellow Drama"
>
> This is wrong, but in a really awesome way: " I'm not mellow dramatic
> about it anymore."
>
> God, I LOVE That. But it's melodrama. Melodramatic.
>
> The "melo" is about it being a musical or having music.
>
> melodrama
> 1802, melodrame, "a stage-play in which songs were interspersed and
> music accompanied the action," from Fr. m�lodrame, from Gk. melos
> "song" (see melody) + Fr. drame "drama" (see drama). Meaning "a
> romantic and sensational dramatic piece with a happy ending" is from
> 1883, since this was often the form of the original melodramas.
>
> ==============================
>
> Some thought went into that.
>
> Hema quoted her young daughter, Zoya, on her blog:
>
> Zoya's language usage is as usual unique. She told me the road is
> grumpy. I asked her why. She said "can't you feel it?" The road we
> were driving on was very bumpy ;-)
>
> When Marty was little he thought we were saying "Fairy dogs" when we
> talked about "prairie dogs."
>
> Sometimes the errors are better than the proper understandings.
>
> Sandra
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Rinelle

I love it when my daughter says 'hell-tel' instead of hotel. I just can't
bring myself to correct her. :)

Tamara

NCMama

My favorite of Seth's:

yesternight

It just makes sense!

Caren

Sandra Dodd

-=yesternight

It just makes sense!-=-

Horatio uses it in Hamlet. He tells Hamlet he thinks he saw his
father yesternight.

In older writings you'll see yestereve (last night) and yesternoon and
yestermorn too. So he's using English perfectly well, if a little
archaically.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

renee_cabatic

Xander used to call meat that was tender and easy to chew, "chewy". I explained to him that chewy meat was hard to chew but he didn't think that made sense.

Renee Cabatic

TokeliT

8 yr old Taryn, the budding scientist, likes to go outside and mix things together from the kitchen cupboards. She says she's making "an experience."

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> On facebook one of my kids misspelled something, and I sent a message
> on the side, with a quote from etymonline.com
>
> =============================
>
>
> Subject: "Mellow Drama"
>
> This is wrong, but in a really awesome way: " I'm not mellow dramatic
> about it anymore."
>
> God, I LOVE That. But it's melodrama. Melodramatic.
>
> The "melo" is about it being a musical or having music.
>
>
> melodrama
> 1802, melodrame, "a stage-play in which songs were interspersed and
> music accompanied the action," from Fr. mélodrame, from Gk. melos
> "song" (see melody) + Fr. drame "drama" (see drama). Meaning "a
> romantic and sensational dramatic piece with a happy ending" is from
> 1883, since this was often the form of the original melodramas.
>
> ==============================
>
> Some thought went into that.
>
> Hema quoted her young daughter, Zoya, on her blog:
>
> Zoya's language usage is as usual unique. She told me the road is
> grumpy. I asked her why. She said "can't you feel it?" The road we
> were driving on was very bumpy ;-)
>
> When Marty was little he thought we were saying "Fairy dogs" when we
> talked about "prairie dogs."
>
> Sometimes the errors are better than the proper understandings.
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

lylaw

my daughter (now 15), wrote (and I guess said) "defidently" instead of definitely, until well past 12 - even though she was a poet and a novelist, and spent every moment of her passion writing, and spelled very well. somehow she just got it in her head that that was the word, and never seemed to notice when it was written differently. she wasn't misspelling it, she was mis-understanding it!
lyla


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

kristi_beguin

>>Sometimes the errors are better than the proper understandings.<<

Indeed!
Nena has a whole repertoire of wonderful errors, of which only three are coming to mind right now:

We have neighbors named the Fitzgibbons, and she calls them the Thanksgivings. I've started calling them the Thanksgivings!

It's become a joke for her now, and she has a sly little smile when she says it, but she likes to ask me to fill up her compass with soup. (Thermos)

She calls the pits inside apricots, peaches, and cherries "snapes" which always makes me envision a miniature Severus Snape hiding inside the fruit.

Robin Bentley

>
> Megan used to call Hawaii "Ha-whitey" - it still makes me giggle.
>
Hawai'ians might agree with her, since there are few full-blooded
Hawai'ians left <g>

When Senna was little, she had some pronunciation difficulties, but
that made for some cool words. "Motorcycle" was "ogre hogger," which
we thought was completely appropriate for Harley riders!

Robin B.

Jessica Sexton

"Mellow Drama"! Such a wonderful concept, especially as it evokes something so entirely different in my head than the word 'melodrama'.

Holly once tweeted:
"Marty and I doddled to Fastino's for lunch! Disc 1 of Roots showed up today. I have a stack to wrap. And my mom and I are going to a party."

To which I replied:
"Doddled? Is that a verb for when two Dodds go someplace together? Aaw!"

Holly answered:
"no really, it's a word! Though in this case it was two Dodds walking across a vacant lot, in no speedy fashion."

I assume 'doddled' was Holly's interpretation of the word 'dawdled', but I truly loved the idea that there could be a word specifically used for journeys undertaken by some combination of Dodds. (I did, however, feel bad in case I'd inadvertently made Holly feel bad!)

-Jessica

Sandra Dodd

-=-I assume 'doddled' was Holly's interpretation of the word
'dawdled', but I truly loved the idea that there could be a word
specifically used for journeys undertaken by some combination of
Dodds. (I did, however, feel bad in case I'd inadvertently made Holly
feel bad!)-=-

I have a friend named Steve Wander.
In the SCA he (not very imaginatively) made his name "Stefan of the
Wanderers." I roll my eyes BIG when someone just barely dinks with
their real name when they can have any cool medieval name ever. Like
Robert Spencer was "Robert de Spencer." GET A LIFE! (I mean get
anOTHER life.) But anyway... For a while he was the baron of the
local group, and if anyone said they were going to "wander around" or
anything, he would stop them and say they could saunter, or ramble,
but only he could wander. :-)

Sandra Dodd
(a.k.a. occasionally "AElflaed of Duckford)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Claire

Alex wrote:
>
> Dang it! 
> I thought I had it this time! :)
> Work a puzzle!
> Work a puzzle.
> Work a puzzle.
> I got it....


Alex, in Australia we DO say work on a puzzle! Except it'd probably be more like 'do a jigsaw'. Good old English!

Claire

Renee Boisvert

In French it is "faire un experience." (do an experiment) The verb "faire"
means "make" or "do."
My daughters were in French immersion prior to homelearning... and my oldest
still says the french version (in English)

Renee

On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 9:56 AM, TokeliT <tokeli@...> wrote:

>
>
> 8 yr old Taryn, the budding scientist, likes to go outside and mix things
> together from the kitchen cupboards. She says she's making "an experience."
>
>
> --- In [email protected] <AlwaysLearning%40yahoogroups.com>,
> Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
> >
> > On facebook one of my kids misspelled something, and I sent a message
> > on the side, with a quote from etymonline.com
> >
> > =============================
> >
> >
> > Subject: "Mellow Drama"
> >
> > This is wrong, but in a really awesome way: " I'm not mellow dramatic
> > about it anymore."
> >
> > God, I LOVE That. But it's melodrama. Melodramatic.
> >
> > The "melo" is about it being a musical or having music.
> >
> >
> > melodrama
> > 1802, melodrame, "a stage-play in which songs were interspersed and
> > music accompanied the action," from Fr. m�lodrame, from Gk. melos
> > "song" (see melody) + Fr. drame "drama" (see drama). Meaning "a
> > romantic and sensational dramatic piece with a happy ending" is from
> > 1883, since this was often the form of the original melodramas.
> >
> > ==============================
> >
> > Some thought went into that.
> >
> > Hema quoted her young daughter, Zoya, on her blog:
> >
> > Zoya's language usage is as usual unique. She told me the road is
> > grumpy. I asked her why. She said "can't you feel it?" The road we
> > were driving on was very bumpy ;-)
> >
> > When Marty was little he thought we were saying "Fairy dogs" when we
> > talked about "prairie dogs."
> >
> > Sometimes the errors are better than the proper understandings.
> >
> > Sandra
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

lifeislearning

One of our favorites from when Colin was little was that he used the word "stretchy" to describe anything that seemed tall or long to him. People and giraffes, I remember, but also things like pencils or pieces of rope or tall buildings.

And because of an old family story about my aunt, we all sometimes jokingly mispronounce the word "misled" - for the longest time, she thought it had a long i, followed by a z sound - MYzled. She had only seen it in print.

This is a fun thread. It's like a little window on how our minds get creative when we're trying to make sense of things.

Barb

Sandra Dodd

-=-Alex, in Australia we DO say work on a puzzle! -=-

When it's finished, have you worked it?
It's not just jigsaws for which we say "I worked it." Other physical
puzzles, too.

If it's still being worked you could be working on it, but if you just
work on it and then put it away unfinished... you didn't "work it." :-)

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Robin Bentley

> -=-Alex, in Australia we DO say work on a puzzle! -=-
>
> When it's finished, have you worked it?
> It's not just jigsaws for which we say "I worked it." Other physical
> puzzles, too.
>
> If it's still being worked you could be working on it, but if you just
> work on it and then put it away unfinished... you didn't "work
> it." :-)


In Canada, we also say "work on." When it's done, it's finished. If
it's not done, we're still "working on it."

I had never heard "work a puzzle" until Sandra said it. Is it an all-
American phrase (must have gone to college <g>) or is it region-
specific?

Robin B.

Sandra Dodd

I poked around. Online electronic jigsaws, they're using "solve."

I found an article. Here are two quotes:

"And then he proceeded to work the puzzle."

While they're talking about him being in the midst of two years of
working on a puzzle, they say "worked on."

Near the end, they wrote:
"After all that pedaling, it's probably no surprise that Bob is ready
to work a puzzle when he gets home."

La Crescent man completes 7,500-piece puzzle after years of work

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_0ebe0ca0-a8ed-11df-9156-001cc4c03286.html

My grandmother (a Texan) did huge puzzles (not that big, but big ones)
all the time; my sister, ALL the time, Keith quite a bit. His
parents did; they were yankees (Boston and Detroit). I've never heard
anyone call it anything except "work."

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Karen Buxcel

I've only heard people say "work on a puzzle". And when they've
finished, it's 'done'.

Or

"Let's do a puzzle."

But I'm from SD, so chances are, we're just weird round these parts... :)

Karen


On 8/16/10, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
> I poked around. Online electronic jigsaws, they're using "solve."
>
> I found an article. Here are two quotes:
>
> "And then he proceeded to work the puzzle."
>
> While they're talking about him being in the midst of two years of
> working on a puzzle, they say "worked on."
>
> Near the end, they wrote:
> "After all that pedaling, it's probably no surprise that Bob is ready
> to work a puzzle when he gets home."
>
> La Crescent man completes 7,500-piece puzzle after years of work
>
> http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_0ebe0ca0-a8ed-11df-9156-001cc4c03286.html
>
> My grandmother (a Texan) did huge puzzles (not that big, but big ones)
> all the time; my sister, ALL the time, Keith quite a bit. His
> parents did; they were yankees (Boston and Detroit). I've never heard
> anyone call it anything except "work."
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>


--
"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within
himself." -Galileo

Meryl Ranzer

Similar to the Thanksgivings, my 3.5 yo son used to call his occasional babysitter and her 2yo son, (who comes along to play),
Feather and Pooper. Their names are Heather and Cooper.
This always put a smile on my face.
Meryl



Meryl Ranzer
mranzer@...

NCMama

I remember when Evan was quite young, still in his big car seat, (maybe 20 months?) we were hanging out in the car after being in the grocery store, having a little snack before we went home. I saw him wiggle his foot, and look and look at it. Finally, he asked, "Is that MY foot, or YOUR foot?" I saw immediately he was asking about the pronouns, not the ownership. I explained that it was his foot, that when he talked about it, he'd say 'my foot'; when I talked about it, I would say 'your foot'. Then I did the same with my own foot. I could *see* it click in his mind.

I've always loved that sweet memory. Grateful for our connection, so I didn't say, "What do you mean?! Of course it's YOUR foot!"

Caren

m_kher

> In Canada, we also say "work on." When it's done, it's finished. If
> it's not done, we're still "working on it."
>
> I had never heard "work a puzzle" until Sandra said it. Is it an all-
> American phrase (must have gone to college <g>) or is it region-
> specific?
>
> Robin B.
>
I have been wondering too. I've lived in the U.S. for 24 years now and I've always worked on a puzzle and finished it. I don't know if it's my Indian English or whether New Englanders work on a puzzle, or whether I've simply not paid enough attention to the phrase used by people around me. What does Joyce say? :-)

Manisha

Jenny Cyphers

***I've never heard
anyone call it anything except "work."***

I generally say, "I'm doing a puzzle". So there you go, I'm just weird I guess!





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]