Whores de Vores, Orgees and Orjasms...

The title lured you in, didn't it? Just admit that your mind was in the gutter and you were intrigued... Sorry to mislead you, but this post is all about hilarious misconceptions and embarrassing truths.

So we were at my mom's last night for our weekly Family Dinner, sitting around the fire, chatting, eating, you know, the usual. My mom's 'friend-that-is-a-boy' was talking about a trip he'd taken to visit some friends and he said that they'd had a great time, got drunk and had a big orgy (he was joking - I think! lol). Only, he pronounced it with a soft 'g' (like in 'guy'). Or-gee. Mom and I looked at each other and BURST out laughing, "Oh, so you had an or-gee, didja? With lots of or-jasms?" Man, that was probably the most hilarious thing I've heard in a long time. Later that night, as we were leaving, mom and I were talking as she walked me out to the vehicle. "Do you think... is it possible... could it be that he actually thought that was how it was pronounced? I think he did! He probably had no clue why we were in hysterics."

How funny is it when someone mispronounces something that you'd think would be commonly known? Don't think I'm all high-and-mighty about it either. Let me tell you my story.

First of all, you should know that I'm a HUGE reader and I've been known to devour entire romance sections of local libraries in a matter of months, if not weeks. When I was younger, especially in my early teen years, I was obsessed with Harlequin novels. Anyway, in my reading I would occasionally come across this one phrase that confounded me. It seemed like it was a foreign language and so in my mind I pronounced it Whores de Vores. I knew it was food-related but didn't know exactly what it was. Fast forward to many years later, I'm in my mom's kitchen reading something out loud, like a menu or something, and I say this word. My mom shakes her head, looks at me, "What? What did you say?"
"You know, whores de vores."
"What?! Here, let me see that. Where were you reading... oh. OH!" She starts to giggle, then chuckle, then huge deep belly laughs. Meanwhile I'm thinking she's off her rocker.
"Just what is so funny about that?"
"Oh, honey, honey... The word is pronounced OR-DERVES." When she saw my facial expression she just about had a heart attack, she was laughing so hard.

I was talking to my friend about this last night and she said that for the longest time her hubby would say dandy-longlegs, and even her step-mom used to say hy-hee-nas. How cute is that? The thing that is so funny (and utterly embarrassing) about finally learning you've been mispronouncing something your entire life, is you realize just how many times you've probably said that in front of people and no one ever said a word to correct you. So then you wonder how many people out there think you're an idiot, because FOR SURE that person went and told all their friends, who told their friends, etc.

Has this ever happened to you or anyone you know? Let me know...