The other day, the girls and I were exiting the library with the normal amount of fuss: Me, heavy leaden with books, trying to keep the doors from scraping the children's sandal-clad toes, exhorting them to wait for me and not run out in the street, etc. A tween-aged boy was standing by the curb, also weighed down with many books. He wore glasses and plaid shorts. As we stumbled by, he turned to me, nodded at the girls, and said, "They're very promiscuous, aren't they?" enunciating the word very carefully, making it clear that it was a word he had just learned.
I laughed in the polite way that you do when a stranger says something weird to you, but it wasn't until we were halfway across the parking lot that I realized exactly how weird it was. Promiscuous? I do not think that word means what he thought it does, obviously, but it made me wonder exactly what meaning he was trying to convey, what other multisyllabic recently-learned word he should have said instead in reference to my children. Ebullient? Perspicacious? Obstreperous? All of these would have been a better fit.
As I was loading the insert-your-own-latinate-adjective girls into the car, I saw the boy's mother come out of the the library. They walked to the car together. I toyed for a moment with the idea of shouting, "Hey! Your son called my daughters promiscuous! It was both rude and inaccurate!" but I felt that nothing would be gained from that. I just hope this kid learns the real meaning of the word before he says it to someone else, someone less-kind-hearted than myself.
I laughed in the polite way that you do when a stranger says something weird to you, but it wasn't until we were halfway across the parking lot that I realized exactly how weird it was. Promiscuous? I do not think that word means what he thought it does, obviously, but it made me wonder exactly what meaning he was trying to convey, what other multisyllabic recently-learned word he should have said instead in reference to my children. Ebullient? Perspicacious? Obstreperous? All of these would have been a better fit.
As I was loading the insert-your-own-latinate-adjective girls into the car, I saw the boy's mother come out of the the library. They walked to the car together. I toyed for a moment with the idea of shouting, "Hey! Your son called my daughters promiscuous! It was both rude and inaccurate!" but I felt that nothing would be gained from that. I just hope this kid learns the real meaning of the word before he says it to someone else, someone less-kind-hearted than myself.
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