Tuesday, August 3, 2010

You're Such A Dipthong!

This is the new favorite saying of the kids on my block. Yes, they've been out of school too long. Unfortunately (for me), school doesn't start here until August 23rd.

I first heard this a few weeks ago from the mouth of my seven year-old daughter.


This one.*

She called one of her friends a dipthong.

I said, "Do you know what a dipthong is?"

Well, of course she doesn't. She's seven. It just sounds funny.

I told her, "It's a term used in English. It's a word used to describe a gliding vowel sound made up of two vowels together. Like the word 'eye'."

Apparently, this is way over the head of a soon-to-be second-grader. They continue to call each other dipthongs.

I must admit, it does sound like an insult.




*Photo courtesy of my soon-t0-be sophomore, who has taken beginning and intermediate photography with a dinosaur of a film/SLR camera, and is taking digital photography this year. This was taken with her brand new Canon Rebel, which I was able to afford thanks to her older sister, who has decided NOT to go to college this year. She is instead wanting to join the National Guard or the Reserves, thanks to her dumb-ass boyfriend (still in AZ) who got such a low score on the ASVAB that he just was assigned the job of "infantry scout", or some such thing, and leaves for basic training in January. This is a very long story, probably needing a different post. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the military, but if it weren't for him and this stupid hold he has on her, she'd be starting college in three weeks, instead of sitting on my couch all day.

She's such a dipthong.


9 comments:

Stacey said...

Never even heard the word dipthong before???

Well, I guess the good thing is that the military will pay for her college!

twelvedaysold said...

I was totally trying to figure out what a dipthong was. It's hard to be 23 and have to look up the new words kids are using to insult each other. Thanks for putting me ahead of the game!

Dawn's Dad said...

When our kids were very little they were told they could not use certain four letter words because they were mommy and daddy words not to be used by children - and they believed us! So they came up with their own insults. We heard one of them calling the other a casserole one day.

Dawn in D.C. said...

I agree, the military will pay for college. I do hope she puts a lot of thought into it. It's not a decision to be made lightly.

And yes, I'm pretty sure it was I who called my sister a casserole. Because I was older and knew bigger words.

Mary~Momathon said...

Oh, I needed new swear words to use while I drive! Diphthong and Casserole are awesome! Thanks for those.

Anonymous said...

The new word in Philly is "jawn". Not an insult, but a describing word. As in "put that stupid @$$ jawn down and get over here". It is widely accepted in use by children and adults who should know better. Mostly used by men, boys and the 15-18 year range. Can be used to describe anything from a girl to a cd to this comment. Typically said as follows-

"Imma leave diss jawn on ya page now."


I wish I could remember when people used their brains to think of the word they wanted to say, instead of making up fake words to annoy others.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

On the bright side, the military will probably separate the two of them. They don't really take the desires of infantry scouts into account.

Sometimes they have to learn the hard way. Sigh.

shrink on the couch said...

And here I thought a dipthong was .. well .. a euphamism for dipsh*t. Feel free to delete this comment (but only if your kids are reading).

Joann Mannix said...

Oh man, I am so going to call the awful drivers on the road tomorrow, dipthong casseroles.

And ugh, I can see exactly what you mean about the boyfriend. In this day and age, I don't think I'd be too happy about any of my kids wanting to join the reserves or anything military. Too much danger.

The picture is beautiful.