Books -- reading and writing.
Home, cooking, the weather.
And whatever connections I can make between these chapters of my life.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Words, Words, Words!

I'm a big fan of words.
(Coming soon: my take on the newly-issued Richard Scarry books. So many words for kids!)

But even though I was a Spelling Bee champ in 4th grade, for the first 15 years of my life, I didn't know how to spell this word.

Okay, maybe I could have figured it out, but it just wasn't a word I ever required in writing.
Though we said it almost every day, didn't you?

Of course, we pronounced it SPICKET.
Or maybe spikket.

Turn on that spicket, would you?

Or Watch you don't run into the spikket with your bike, honey.


    Imagine my surprise when I eventually discovered this strange spelling.

SPIGOT.
Huh?
                        
Word of the Day for Saturday, August 3, 2013

spigot \SPIG-uht\, noun:
1. a small peg or plug for stopping the vent of a cask.
2. a peg or plug for stopping the passage of liquid in a faucet or cock.
3. a faucet or cock for controlling the flow of liquid from a pipe or the like.
4. the end of a pipe that enters the enlarged end of another pipe to form a joint.



Kind of like this...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_spigot.jpg
Second Base in our Backyard Baseball Games.


A little more about words, via a great post on WORDS THAT DRIVE YOUR EDITOR CRAZY:

http://behindthegardengate.blogspot.com/2013/07/words-that-drive-your-editor-crazy.html 

Thanks to fellow critique group member, Susan Banghart for sharing that link!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spicket stories abound in the South, at least from my youth...most are funny (now). :))

Eileen in Atlanta

Kimberley Griffiths Little said...

Too funny! That's what I thought too when I was a kid. :-) I love that word, "spigot" though. It's in my new book for next year, too. Doing copy edits right now!