phraseology

Almost everything I know on this earth has been gleamed by reading. How to breakdance, how to talk to people, hell even how to give a blowjob.

(The Sensual Woman written by "J" when I was 12. Hell I was curious)

As a result my vocabulary is wide, but ironically being a lazy bastard I gleamed meanings from context instead of a dictionary. This isn't news, I talked before about my approximate discovery.

Sometimes my self-taught language slips out. This week I used a big one, and I'm still reeling.

Every week my division has a big meeting where just about everyone attends. You know, heads of sales, all the publishers, management, and all of us peeps who give them info.

When the spotlight was on me I was doing what I normally do - giving information, insight, and opinion. It was a bit of a heated debate, and in explaining myself I got interrupted at one point. So when I got back to presenting I said it.

"To wit..."

One of the publishers actually stopped me and repeated the phrase back to me. At which point I repeated it as well. "Yes, to wit."

This is not the first time this guy has done this to me. The last time was when I used "ad nauseum".

Now I know that he is doing so in good humor, appreciating my unique use of language and playing with it. But I gotta tell you every freakin time I get paranoid that I misspoke and used the word incorrectly! And then obsess over it for a week! Seriously, I'm still double checking definitions to make sure I really didn't look like an idiot.

That is of course if anyone besides him ever even heard the phrase before. But still.