Saturday, November 19, 2005

Is that Webster's phone number in your little black book?

We have been married over 10 years.

Then today, in the middle of a conversation.... out it comes.

I've never heard of it before, now. Never even had a hint it was going on in his head.

"Repartee".

I don't know if I spelled it right. I don't even know what it means. It was such a shock, I can't even remember the rest of the context of the conversation to help me define it's meaning.

You would think, after ten years, you would have a good working knowledge of the repitoire of your spouse's vocabulary.

But no. Out it comes... like he's always had it in his brain, like it has been an acceptable conversational word to use all of our lives.... like everyone knows what it means.

He asked if I thought he was having an affair with a dictionary.

I'm just saying the evidence speaks for itself. Come to think of it, I have always been a little suspicious.....

5 comments:

Theresa said...

Is that crime scene tape around your bookshelf near that chalk outline of a large book? :o)

Rick L said...

You just have to separate the word into it's components. To part is to separate, as in "to cleave." The partee would be the one who did the parting. Therefore, since the prefix "re" means to do something again, then repartee would mean the the partee did not do a good job of parting the first time and consequently had to repeat the procedure. :-)

Anonymous said...

This is what Merriam Webster's Dictionary.com has to say about the word repartee...
A swift, witty reply.
Conversation marked by the exchange of witty retorts.
Anytime he says words you don't know, go to dictionary.com and look it up. See you l8r!

Anonymous said...

Jason has an amazing way of throwing out words like that. And yes, what you said made sense, and I enjoyed your input. See you soon(?)!

Anonymous said...

sorry, that was me, aka Brettin.