(Not actually about crotch-mounted steering wheels.)
My MCSA/Access teacher says “relative” when she means “relevant” every damn time and it completely throws me off. I raised my hand to ask a question just now and she asked “Is it relative?” It took me a couple seconds to figure out WTF she was asking me, until I remembered hearing her use “relative” for “relevant” in another conversation. If I didn’t already know that she uses her own special dictionary that nobody else had access to, I would have been knocked completely off the track.
This is a highly educated professor and working professional who speaks English natively. WTF?
I was driving down a main road in town last week with this gal I’ve been seeing, and she said, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know this road had boulevards.”
Me: What do you mean?
Her: I thought the only boulevards in town were on the two main roads.
Me: I don’t think those are boulevards, either, I think they’re roads.
Her: Yeah, but the roads have boulevards.
Me: Boulevards?
Her: Yeah, you know, those concrete curbs that separate the traffic?
Me: Oh, you mean the medians?
Her: Yeah, those things. I call them boulevards.
Me: :dubious: Umm… Ok?
In my botany lab, we were learning how to use microscopes (for the fourth time in my college career), and he harped on the fact that we wouldn’t be using the “oil emergence” lenses at all in that class. It was even printed as such in the handout. (Joke is that he really means “immersion”.)
After I got my wits about me, I replied “Er, yeah, it’s relevant.” I didn’t want to make an ass of myself, especially since I’d pushed a little far in a quasi-political discussion after MCSA class (apparently her views are, um, quite different from mine).