When I used the guest bathroom at my Aunts’, both were English teachers who are going to scold me for my punctuation but not necessarily for content or spelling.
There was the big old OED, yes, a dictionary, on top of the toilet. By the time I got out I was supposed to have chosen a new word, its’ meaning and use it in a sentence.
It is interesting that my husband was read the Encylopaedia Brittanica by his, she’s agreed 12 years ago to be OUR Nanny, starting very early in life. We also had a set of EB and I learned much from it just reading from day to day.
One may say we led separate lives and we did until later in life. We both had dairy, education (science vs. liberal arts), and a will to make life better both for business, non-profit organizations, and us.
Words are difficult when transmitted via phone or email. All I know is that my husband is sick with cold/flu and I’m 2,000 miles away and can’t make him chicken soup or herbal tea.
The answer is tuppence, feed the birds. I’ve seen Saving Mr. Banks again and perhaps childhoods like that made people more creative as they aged. I think we use words because we had good parents, and one had grandparents, to show us the way. Supercalifragisticexpealidociously yours, Dee
ps I never used that in a sentence or explained it. We must ask Mary Poppins!
Cooking with Dee 