Sam's Dictionary

Sam's vocabulary is blossoming more and more as he grows. Now, at four-and-a-half, he can tell you what words mean. He's been doing this a lot lately. One of you speech-path people tell me if this is a milestone. I assume so because it has been fairly sudden.

What's so great about this is that Sam's definitions aren't quite what Noah Webster had in mind when he wrote his great dictionary. Sam's definitions are all based on context--which is legitimate (remember this, my dear English students?). However, they aren't usually correct, and most of them are adjectives. This makes for fun blogging material, in my opinion.

Here are a few:

• Strong: "means you pick up stuff and you're strong"
• Cute: "means you smile all the time"
• Handsome: "means you're so nice and brave"
• Fat: "means you have hair all over your body"

I asked him these this morning to make the list longer.

• Smart: "you're a good finder of cars at Conway"
• Nice: "means whenever you are good"
• Silly: "means you are funny"
• Funny: "means you are making silly faces"
• Kind: "you take care of your sister and your brother"
• Mean: "means you have to tell your mom and dad"
• Truth: "means you can have sweets"
• Lie: "it's a bad thing"

He's so precious!