Things aren't what you think they are!

[SGKelloe32]

Sorry people but i couldnt really find an exact category to fit my question into..........i'm wondering if there are people who are daft as me....did you ever think that a word or abbreviation stood for something different than it actually means? Up until i was about 14 i thought C.I.D really meant constables in disguise and thats why they didn't wear uniforms on the bill!

[georgit79]

Is it just as stupid to not have a clue what it means at all and to have never wondered about it?!

[smudge]

Your question fits my experience perfectly! When I was in Junior school, we were in an English lesson & the Teacher asked us to write down a particular sentence -then a semi-colon. I put my hand up & asked "Please Miss, how do you spell semi-colon?". Thankfully, I wasn't alone in asking for assistance & it's someting I've never forgotten! Also, I'm happy to say that I went on to be top of the Class in spelling!

[bernardo]

At school whenever the teachers referred to P.E. I always thought of it as "pee ee" and it was only when I was about 9 that anybody ever actually wrote it down as "P.E.".  It had never occurred to me that it was an abbreviation rather than a word, and it had never even occurred to me that I didn't actually know what the word "pee ee" meant.

[natalie_1982]

You mean it doesn't mean constables in disguise?

[SGKelloe32]

lol - i think its more fun than criminal investigation dept!

[smudge]

LOL bernardo - that did make me giggle!

[NoGood Boyo]

Neither you nor the phenomenon are daft, SGKelloe32. It's the way that we hear things as children, and it goes on for long after that, if we hear a term long before we see it written, or find an explanation. When I was a child I thought that "Landrover" was one word, with the accent on the first syllable. Only when I learned to read did I realise that ther were two words involved. But then I'm a simple soul, who expects Orange shops to sell oranges, Body Shops to sell bodies, Selfridges to sell fridges, and Richard shops to sell richards. We've all been there!

[georgit79]

see, I've only just learnt what it means and I'm 25....oh dear..

[natalie_1982]

In didn't know either georgit!

[unnamed]

in lonely hearts ads i thought that gsoh meant good salary own house and tv (transvestite) meant that they owned a tv.

[tania]

reminds me of one of my children asking if all PCs (police constables) come from PC world!

[Ahmed]

bernardo lol. That's funny.

The sad thing is, I always thought Westminster in London was Westminister up until about 5 years ago. It wasn't till my girlfriend challenged me once; "What did you just say?..." so I repeated 'westminister' and she couldn't stop laughing for quite some time.

[beale]

When I was younger I always thought Columbo used to introduce himself as "Detective Columbo - Humberside." It was only much later I realised he would have worked for homicide what with him investigating all those murders and everything. Turns out he's not from the north of England at all!

[becks]

Not really an abbreviation but a childhood thing i mis-heard, until i was about 15 i thought it was Windsor Grape Park, not Windsor GreaT Park, as no one pronounces the T - for years i thought it was some huge vineyard-type park.

[NoGood Boyo]

And why do world leaders always want to hold pea-stalks when there is a conflict going on? And a lady once told me that "she was so angry that she was incest"! Standing ovulation all round, in my opinion.

[Octavius]

And why do women have multiple organisms?

[Octavius]

Reading a story once, my friend at school convinced me that an a-lee-bee was some sort of facial twitch and that if anyone asked, I didn't have one.  I have since learned that that is not what an alibi is 

[archbishop]

Up to the age of 13, I always thought that Bros was a surname as in Moss Bros. 

[FP]

Praise my Soul the King of Heaven:

My mother tells me that she thought one verse started with:

 

'Praise him for his Greasy Fivers to our fathers in distress...... '

[smudge]

Oh now that is very funny FP!