Sunday, August 15, 2021

That's not what I meant

 Over time communication evolves. Probably the best example for my age group is the word Gay. The word was used commonly in text and song to imply a happy or good natured feeling. But, now, it has aquired a negative connotation where if someone is Gay they are likely homosexual or in the form of an adjective things (without a sex) can be reffered to as gay, or despicable. A word that neith my parents or muy children quite understood how I said it was "Bad" as in, "That was bad!" meaning that it was incredibly good. 

Now, on to what I was most amused about today: My husband is a pig... ha ha ha, no, literally, or wait, huh?

It started when one of my vocabulary words today was Baal, and it was explained that it is used less and less because of a sort of sexual revolution. The word refers to a man as a husband, but because of the connotation of it meaning "Owner" much as we think of the word Lord in America. Women prefer to use a word combination that means "man of mine"

But, as I was watching an entirely unrelated video about pork consumption, an onld Cannanite diety named Ball was mentioned as being associated with wild boar or pigs (as hunting them was a sign of virility), and I laughed at the thought of how both the word Baal had changed in meaning as much as the hunting of boar as a symbol status. The reason I laughed was because "my husband" was like pig or, one might say: piglike. 

it only has humor because of the connotations, though. yesterday for some reason I talked with my kids about what a "dip" was because they didn't understad why putting up signs that warn of a dip in the road was so funny. Well, Joe often talks about he slow children who always play in the road! But, he is away camping, and Mary had never heard of a dip stick even!! I seriously wonder how I could even communicate with those kids sometimes. We use the same words, but a different language.


No comments: