Word Origins

Overheard at breakfast this morning:

Hooman (to Nickels) "Do you know what breakfast really means?"

Me (thinking) "Pick ME!  I know!  I know!"

Nickels "Yeah" (do I even need to add that the "DUH" implicit in his voice told me he had NO CLUE what the origin of the word is?")

Me (because it was so evident that Hooman was about to answer his own question and I'm a know-it-all) "I know!  I know!  Pick MEEEEEEE!"

Nickels "Everybody knows that.  It's a break and you have to eat it fast."

I was stirring the eggs, facing away from the kids in that moment.  My head cranked around so fast that I practically got whiplash.  I looked at Nickels thinking "REALLY?  That's your origin for the word?"

Then I started laughing.  And, because I am a know-it-all, I asked Hooman to let his brother in on the secret.  After HE stopped laughing.

Obviously, Nickels felt it was a break from the morning chores his horrible parents make him do.  And, because he is so sloth-slow at getting said chores done, he is constantly having the verbal breakfast whip* cracked over his head, so he HAS to eat fast.

In other words:  he recreated the origin of breakfast to include laziness that results from feeling pressured to hurry.

I hate to tell him this, but he'll be learning that word over the next couple of years.  What he defined is commonly called procrastination in these, here civilized Americas.

And, if he bothers to crack open the dictionary to look it up, he might even see his Mother's picture to the right of the word.



*You probably have one of these at your house, too:  "You're running late?"  "Hurry up.  Eat your cereal.  The car is about to leave."  "You have to pack your backpack.  COME ON!"