Ode to My Hubby (This connotes that I Love You)

  

con·note –verb (used with object)

1.	to signify or suggest (certain meanings, ideas, etc.) in addition to the explicit or primary meaning: The word “fireplace” often connotes hospitality, warm comfort, etc.

2.	to involve as a condition or accompaniment: Injury connotes pain.

–verb (used without object)

3.	to have significance only by association, as with another word: Adjectives can only connote, nouns can denote.

Since we met, my hubby has had this annoying habit of correcting my bad grammer. As the years pass it has become one of those things that is annoying, but we laugh about it. I know he does it without thinking and it is not done in some elitist way, but out of habit.

When we had been dating about a month, it was time for Christmas shopping. This is a panicky situation when you are newly dating because you don’t want to get diamond earrings when you gave a new cozy for his beer. So the hubby started a conversation about how we should approach the upcoming holiday.

He said, “So what are the expectations, ettiquette or mores for how we are going to approach Christmas gifts?”

 I said, “What the heck are mores.” He said, “You know mores- like what is expected, norms, customs.”

I said, “Whatever smarty, I would have phrased it, how much do you want to spend on each other for Christmas?”

There were a few times after that where he would use some big word and I would mock him and we would laugh, but as time went on I began to dumb him down to my level of speech. It is something I take great pride in.

Lately though I think he has been subscribing to some daily dictionary email or something because the big words are creeping back into his vocabulary. Yesterday on the way home from church the hubby used the word connote in a sentence. I lovingly corrected him by saying, “sweety the word is denote.”  A heated argument loving discussion insued whereby each of us were trying to prove our superior vocabulary skills and various bets were made as to who was right. We tried to really argue about this, but truth be told we couldn’t stop giggling at each other.

Let me digress for just a moment and say that my hubby also has a bad habit of being a bit of a backseat driver when it comes to anyone who he thinks might be risking the safety of those in the car (I swear he has a whole host of wonderful qualities too, they just don’t seem to be being highlighted in this particular post, but in case you think I am being hard on him, please see here)

Anyway, the hubby, determined not to lose this battle, pulls out his trusty Blackberry to surf the internet for a site that will prove connote is in fact a word. He swears that we were stopped at a light during the surfing, but I remember it differently. Of course, he was right.

Don’t you worry ’bout me, I had my sweet revenge. Lily, who witnessed the whole interaction sticks up for her mommy and says in all seriousness, “Daddy, the word is denote.” Then she sings a song about how it is denote not connote all the way home. A good vocabulary lesson had by all.