"Word Up"

At the dawn of time man created the word. But what did it mean? To explain its meaning he (or she) needed another word. So now he had two words that essentially described each other.

This is one of the challenges of being the parent of a five year old.

At least once a day Natalie asks me what a word means. And she’s not shy about it either. If I’m talking to her and I use a word she doesn’t know, she’ll stop the conversation to ask me. Usually we’ll talk a little bit about the word and make sure she understands it and then move on.

But occasionally (meaning more often than I like to admit) Natalie asks what a word means and I’ll say “A means B”. Natalie then wants to know what B means, and the first explanation that comes to mind is “B means A”. In logic, this is called a circular reference.

Yesterday Natalie asked me what “meant”, well, meant. (As in “I meant to eat all of Natalie’s Easter candy while she was asleep”). I explained that it was when someone did something on purpose. If only it ended there. Natalie then wanted to know what “on purpose” means and my immediate response was that it means someone meant to do something.

Huh?

Do you know what it’s like for a five year old little girl to look at you like you’re an idiot, but is too nice to say it? I do.

If only she could read. Then I could send her to her little girl dictionary.

At just to confound me (which does happen more than I would like) I’ll use a word and then realize that Natalie may not know what it means. Yesterday, it was “enthusiastic”.

“Natalie, do you know what enthusiastic means”

“Yes. It means to be excited about something”

Huh?

Natalie asked me this morning if I thought she was smarter than me. I said “Yes”