The other day, the brat called me at office, while he was at home doing his word power homework. I am, to him, a more convenient dictionary than the two we have at home and which would necessitate turning pages, scanning words in fine print and such like for the meanings of the words he needs to know.
"Mamma," he asked. "Give the meaning of faggot."
I froze. Then unfroze. Maybe the old ears were acting up I thought.
"Can you spell the word out to me, brat," I replied, thinking perhaps, I'd got it wrong, that school homework would not have a deragatory term like that as part of its find the meaning of homework.
He spelt it out for me chirpily.
I swallowed. And decided to lie. "Brat, I don't know the meaning of that word, let's move on to the next. We'll check it in the dictionary together once I'm back home."
I fretted and fumed all day in the office and when we reached home I made a beeline for his word power homework book. Sure enough, faggot was printed in clear letters.
Maybe, the light shone dimly in a distant recess of my brain, this word has been used in his text book which is why it is included in a find the meaning of.
Which in turn meant there is a meaning to it other than the one it is currently used as. I turned the pages of the Oxford dictionary with much speed. There it was.
Faggot: (Noun) a bundle of sticks and branches bound together.
I breathed a sigh of relief at not having to go into complicated explanations just yet. And decided that the mind needed a clearing out of accumulated junk too. After all, whatever is our contemptuous slang today was originally a perfectly regular, non offensive word.
"Mamma," he asked. "Give the meaning of faggot."
I froze. Then unfroze. Maybe the old ears were acting up I thought.
"Can you spell the word out to me, brat," I replied, thinking perhaps, I'd got it wrong, that school homework would not have a deragatory term like that as part of its find the meaning of homework.
He spelt it out for me chirpily.
I swallowed. And decided to lie. "Brat, I don't know the meaning of that word, let's move on to the next. We'll check it in the dictionary together once I'm back home."
I fretted and fumed all day in the office and when we reached home I made a beeline for his word power homework book. Sure enough, faggot was printed in clear letters.
Maybe, the light shone dimly in a distant recess of my brain, this word has been used in his text book which is why it is included in a find the meaning of.
Which in turn meant there is a meaning to it other than the one it is currently used as. I turned the pages of the Oxford dictionary with much speed. There it was.
Faggot: (Noun) a bundle of sticks and branches bound together.
I breathed a sigh of relief at not having to go into complicated explanations just yet. And decided that the mind needed a clearing out of accumulated junk too. After all, whatever is our contemptuous slang today was originally a perfectly regular, non offensive word.
4 comments:
Nicely and "crisply" narrated...many people's blogs are too verbose. I enjoyed reading your post...could imagine your predicament :-) These days so many nice words have not-so-nice connotations...makes parents job difficult doesn't it...my li'l one is 20 months old...for some time at least I don't have to face such dilemma :)
Sad truth of our times. Perfectly innocuous words like pansy, gay and faggot are now unusable in their unloaded context:(
Ha ha.. Thank goodness! Wonder if there's a different eaning to 'rascal' as well.. My 5 yr old has ot in ne of hildren's stories. I slways wonder why wasn't that word removed or replaced with sth else..
I had that moment with 'nag'. Just in the nick of time I remembered to explain that it could also refer to an old horse. Till then I fumed at the exercise that needed him to learn to read 'nag'.
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