What’s the Word: Curiosity can get you in hot water
I was born with a curious nature. And while curiosity isn’t necessarily a bad trait, it can get you into trouble on occasion.
I think my inquisitive bent exhibited itself early on and not always to my benefit.
I was one of those “why?” kids. You know, the ones who drive people crazy by asking why constantly. I remember a conversation I had with my dad when I was a kid that’s a great example.
It went something like this:
My Dad: “Stop pulling the kitty’s tail.”
Me: “Why?”
My Dad: “Because the kitty doesn’t like it.”
Me: “Why?”
My Dad: “Because it hurts the kitty.”
Me: “Why?”
My Dad: “Listen here son, you’re going to find out when I whip yours if you keep pulling the kitty’s.”
Now, I certainly don’t advocate spanking children, but I think PETA would probably have backed my dad up on that one.
And speaking of my childhood, I think one of the reasons I’m so fascinated with words and their many meanings is an early lesson I learned about knowing the exact meaning of a word before you use it. I found out the hard way that when you’re figuring out the meaning of words, context doesn’t always cut it.
It was just my luck that Valentine’s Day came up right after we had a Sunday school lesson on King Saul. Thinking myself somewhat of a poet at the tender age of 10 or so, my Valentine’s card to the girl of my dreams at that time read like this:
“I will be your Valentine if you will be my concubine.”
I mean, they were female, they were in the Bible, King Saul had a bunch of them, and from my 10-year-old perspective it sounded like they were his girlfriends. But I found out quickly that was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I got three paddlings for that particular misinterpretation. One from my fourth-grade teacher, one from the school principal, and one from my parents when I got home after my teacher was nice enough to call them. And what really burned me was nobody would tell me what was so bad about the word concubine.
I finally asked my older brother who filled me in. I spent the next several hours trying to figure out how I could avoid going back to school for the rest of my life.
Another thing I’ve always been curious about is where all the idioms and old sayings people toss around come from.
I remember the first time I heard someone say, “He got left holding the bag on that one.” I could figure out what it meant from what had been said earlier in the conversation, but I was immediately curious as to where it came from and why people started saying it. Since then I’ve checked around a bit and so far I haven’t been able to find out much about its origins. I do have some ideas of my own though.
Anyone ever heard of snipe hunting? For those who haven’t, let me fill you in. What you do is find a really gullible victim and ask them if they want to go snipe hunting sometime. If the poor unfortunate has never heard of it and agrees, you tell him that you don’t shoot the snipes, you get a bunch of guys and one guy holds a bag and whistles while the other guys drive the snipes toward him. Then if the guy with the bag whistles just right, the stupid snipes run right into the bag.
Then you take the poor guy out in the woods and tell him since it’s his first time, he gets to hold the bag since that’s the most important part.
Then everyone just leaves him out there, holding a bag and whistling like an idiot.
Somehow, I’ve got a feeling that’s where the expression, “he got left holding the bag” comes from. If anyone out there has heard a better explanation, give me a ring or drop me a line.
I’d be interested to hear it. I don’t want to wind up holding the bag on this one.
(Charlie Johnson is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191.)