Sexology

Tonight's Fergusworld Episode:

From the next room he called out, "What's Innuendo mean?"

I tried to explain, but it turns out to be pretty hard to explain, especially to a 9-year-old. So I said, "Wait a minute; I'll get the dictionary."

When I came back, flipping through the pages, he said, "Just give it to me. I want to look it up."

Honestly, I wasn't even sure he knew how to look up a word like that in the dictionary. But he did, and read the definition out loud:

in-nu-en-do 1. An indirect intimation about a person or thing esp. (he pronounced this "esp") of a derogatory nature. 2. Law a. a parenthetic explanation or specification in a pleading b. (in an action for slander or libel) the explanation and elucidation of the words alleged to be defamatory.

Then we went on to read the derivation of the word, mostly phonetically, since it was rife with cryptic abbreviations.

He sat there for a moment. Then he announced, "I did not understand a word I just read."

But he held onto the dictionary.

Five minutes later he announced, "Sex! Norah, Sex is here! In the dictionary!"

There was a pause.

"Everything is sex!" he said.

"Sex act. Sexagenarian. Sexagesima. Sex appeal. Everything is sex! Sexavalent. Sex chromosome. Sexism. Sexologist. Sexpartite. I want to be a sexologist. I'm going to be a sexologist!"

As I say, the kid is nine.