Monday, December 17, 2007

This is funny; Or, RDB is dorkier than you realized.

Vocabulary lesson (Tom Kraemer)

I was visiting my brother's family recently, watching nieces and nephews chase their new kitten around. The kitten would escape pursuit by jumping up on the sill of an open window, and I warned them, "Hey, be careful kitty doesn't defenestrate herself!"

My brother, whom I consider well educated, asked me what the heck 'defenestrated' meant, so I told him to look it up. He produced a fairly thick paperback dictionary, flipped through it for a few seconds, and declared that it wasn't a real word.

I took the dictionary from him and looked, and sure enough there was no listing for 'defenestrate'. So, I threw it out the window.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha!!! That's funny! Defenestrate was a big word at BU because one of the big rules in the dorms was "no defenestration." Anyone who went to BU knows what that word means. That's MY BU not your BU :)

And... I already knew you were that dorky.

Anonymous said...

I agree... that's funny! (and I have to add, no, I didn't go to BU... and I didn't go to Brandeis for that matter, either)

Anonymous said...

Made me laugh out loud!

Scot said...

He did demonstrate defenestrate. Words like this is why they still teach Latin.

moonrat said...

hahahahaha perfect.

ReadDanceBliss said...

Yup, he did demonstrate defenestrate - and sentences like that are why they still teach alliteration. And sentences like "Words like this is" are why they still teach grammar ;)

neonspecs said...

amazing. one of my favorite words.

Scot said...

And why we should always proof read before posting to RDB...