# Words and phrases you misunderstood as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2014, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655 "2014-01-25T00:53:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/101 "2014-01-28T20:11:43Z")
When I was little (and being a city boy), I thought kindling wood was ‘kinlin wood’. I also couldn’t figure out if the little stream by my grandparents’ place in the woods was a ‘crick’ or a ‘creek’. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/102 "2014-01-28T20:36:11Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > My last year in college, I was taking an advanced class in 20th century US foreign policy. The girl who usually sat next to me once handed in a paper about fighting Communist gorillas in Vietnam. > > Her comment when she got the paper back with lots of red pencil marks all over it? “Well, SpellCheck said everything was okay.” **Duh!** :smack: > > Humorous aside: For the rest of the class, I was doodling Communist gorillas on a piece of scrap paper and sliding it over to show her. When the instructor saw what I had been doing, he laughed out loud! 😃 In High School, one of the guys in my World Culture class wrote down that the Israeli Prime Minister was Gold In My Ear. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/103 "2014-01-28T20:37:36Z")
These are coming back to me as I read others’ responses: The popular beach/net/ball game: “Bally ball” What my imaginary Indians shot cowboys with: “Bone arrow” ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/104 "2014-01-28T21:02:39Z")
And to the republic For Richard Sands One nation, under God… ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/105 "2014-01-28T21:27:55Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > In junior high I got in trouble for calling a kid a dildo. I thought it solely meant a foolish person. I started using the dictionary after that incident as opposed to gleaning meaning from context. Around the same age, I was puzzled by my parents’ shocked reaction when I quoted these lines from MAD Magazine: > [@](#): > > **WOMAN 1:** Men…you can’t live with 'em, and you can’t live without 'em! > > **WOMAN 2:** Actually, we probably could live without them if we could get our vibrators to take out the trash! …because I had looked up “vibrator,” and the dictionary said it was a device for [giving massages](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vibrator?s=t). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/106 "2014-01-29T06:34:08Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > We had after-school programs in French and Spanish in my elementary school, starting in the third grade. I’m not sure where my third-grade teacher picked up her pronunciation, but she told us that we should ask our parents for permission to learn ‘farn’ language after school. What I head was ‘far **m** ’ language. I figured my Kansas cousins must already know that language, and I’d be able to speak it with them if I signed up for it. Let me guess. You not only live in Maryland now, but grew up there too? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/107 "2014-01-29T06:36:53Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Not a mishearing, but we always used “Catch a _tiger_ by the toe.” It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned there was another version. Same here. In fact I don’t think I knew about the other version until well after I’d graduated from college. ---
**Author:** ![Silvorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Silvorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silvorange)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/108 "2014-01-29T06:46:13Z")
When I was about six, I saw a dime drop on the floor and tried to return it to the man I thought dropped it. He said it wasn’t his and let me keep it, saying, “I guess you’re a dime richer.” I interpreted “dime richer” as meaning someone who got rich by dimes. I thought that was a ridiculous assumption for him to make, especially since it was the first time I had ever found a dime. I also thought it was weird of him to use “rich” as a verb. It was probably twenty years before I replayed the incident in my head and it suddenly made sense. ---
**Author:** ![jaedon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@jaedon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaedon)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/109 "2014-01-29T06:49:57Z")
When I was a child, our teacher cited ten commandments in King James version. So I thought that the word “thou” is same as though. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/110 "2014-01-29T14:50:01Z")
When I was a tyke, there were a lot of PSAs about TB. I thought they were saying “TV”, and wondered why they were warning us about TV on TV. ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/111 "2014-01-29T15:03:58Z")
A classmate wrote about “a mean ole acid”. My son thought “adult supervision” meant that his parents could see thru walls. My mom warned me about a boy who got his penis caught in his zipper and they had to cut it off. It was years before it dawned on me that the “it” was the zipper not the penis. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/112 "2014-01-29T16:59:19Z")
I was 5 and had broken my left arm by falling off a sidewalk-size bicycle when riding it double on the handlebars. A friend my own age and I were walking by a Dairy Queen, my arm in a cast and sling, when a man about to buy something at the walk-up window looked down at me and asked, “Are you broke?” I thought it a funny way to ask if my arm was broken. Of course it was. Maybe he’s blind, but if he’s blind, how would he know my arm is broken? I gave up and said, “Yes.” So he bought me an ice-cream cone and my friend got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/113 "2014-01-29T17:21:31Z")
I thought “eavesdropping” was “eavestroughing” and pictured someone hanging outside windows from the eavestrough listening to conversations. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/114 "2014-01-29T19:21:48Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > My mom warned me about a boy who got his penis caught in his zipper and they had to cut it off. It was years before it dawned on me that the “it” was the zipper not the penis. Yikes. You poor kid. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/115 "2014-01-29T22:30:00Z")
Through first grade, I thought the Pledge of Allegiance was referring to “widget stands,” though I wasn’t sure what a widget was, or what you’d stand it on. (“And to the republic for widget stands…”) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/116 "2014-01-29T22:47:58Z")
Until I was well into my twenties, I thought that when someone smoked a bowl, the bowl was like the size of a salad bowl or soup bowl. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/117 "2014-01-29T23:25:18Z")
'Stick, ‘em’ for setting a dog on someone instead of 'sic ‘em’ (I still think 'Stick ‘em’ makes more sense). Something that lasted well into college, ‘cheat-cheat’ instead of ‘cheat sheet’ for the small notes one carried into tests at school. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/118 "2014-01-29T23:59:32Z")
I am pretty literal-minded so I thought searching an area with a fine-tooth comb literally meant combing through dust and dirt. With one of those black plastic combs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/119 "2014-01-30T00:39:24Z")
When I was in second grade, I accidentally popped another kid in the eye while playing during recess, and was awarded a revoked recess period, to be spent, instead, in the “All Purpose Room”. I distinctly recall preparing a speech to the Nun Of Punishment that I believed the room should be called the All Accident Room. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655/120 "2014-01-30T02:21:29Z")
When I was about 5 years old, my older brothers took me out to a nearby woodsy area they liked to explore. I fell down on some gravel and got a nasty scrape on my knee. On the way home, presumably to make me feel better, they said, “You’ll get the Purple Heart for this,” and I freaked out, thinking that purple heart was some kind of horrifying blood disease. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-you-misunderstood-as-a-child/679655.md?page=7)