Monday, September 15, 2008

Daddy, what does ponic mean?

A couple of years ago, it was a Sunday morning and the whole family was at the breakfast table. My oldest daughter, then about 7, was talking about hydroponics -- you know, like you do when you're 7 -- and she asked us what 'ponic' meant.

So I tried to answer her...and my wife just had to correct me every time: 

"It's something that has to do with sound, or a hedgehog..."
"No, that's sonic."
"It's when you have a disease and you have it all the time, you don't get well."
"No, that's chronic."
"It's what you take to avoid getting malaria."
"No, that's tonic."
"It's a system for learning how to read by sounding out words..."
"No, that's phonics."
"It's a sort of black dialect way of speaking..."
"No, that's ebonics."
"It's a way of cleaning out your digestive system..."
"No, that's a colonic."
"It's when something is really well known, everybody knows what it is..."
"No, that's iconic."

"Well, then I don't know what ponic means."

This didn't amuse the kids quite as much as it did my wife, but that's plenty for me.

1 comment:

  1. http://wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/1726/?letter=a&page=1&spage=1&s=hydroponic

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