"I was gonna say family."
(gotta love those crazy Bluths)
Due to my complete and utter lack of things to write about these days, I'm going to share a little bit about my family. Unless you'd rather I regale you with tales of my recent sick day? No? Ok, family it is.
So my grandma (the one who passed away last fall) was famous in our family for mispronouncing words - but only some of them. She and my grandpa were Kansas farmers so obviously they had some "rural" to them. But before she married my grandpa, waaaay back in the day, Grandma was a school teacher. So her penchant for mispronunciation was always a bit of a mystery to us grandkids.
Some examples:
elite = e-lightPerhaps our most fondly recalled incident was when my sister was in middle school. She told Grandma one weekend that she really wanted to be a meteorologist when she grew up (a passion that seems to have fallen by the wayside, hmm htd?). Well, based on that information, Grandma proceeded to proudly tell her friends and acquaintances that her granddaughter wanted to grow up to be a meteorite. Yup. My sister's impending collision with Earth is the basis for the movie Armageddon.
fish = feesh
iguana - gyoo-aw-na
Ginko Biloba = Ginko Bilbo
So ANYway, one of Grandma's words we never really did figure out the etymology of was "mushmellon" - Grandma served us mushmellon all the time during the summer. Now, I'm going to assume that none of you have ever heard of mushmellon. Except that you have. Only, you, me and the rest of the world call it "cantaloupe."
A few weeks ago, my cousin took it upon himself to discover the origins of this crazy noun that has become a (relatively) normal word in our family...it's not one we use, but we're at least used to hearing it. A quick Google search led him to Urbandictionary, which led him to this:
Mushmellon(n.)- Another word for Cantaloupes used mostly by rednecks and hillbillies.
"How many of them there mushmellons ya grow this year, Bob."
In the words of my cousin Brian: God help our family.
2 comments:
awesome. spreading the love of grandma and a vocabulary lesson. and the meteorite aspiration? i think it died with bill paxton's acting career. r.i.p.
I like me some mushmellons! I like warsh...my dad says that! Oh and "the folks" I call them my parents...but my parents call theirs the folks! I LOVE it! And what...more meteors in Kearney...I mean meteorologists...a cool job I must say! It's better to be a meteorite than a meter reader! Love ya!
Post a Comment