Sunday, September 07, 2008

Ditto

Is this term even relevant to newer generations anymore? I mean... all us old folks know what a ditto is. We nearly all had the experience of a ditto headrush after our teachers ran off hundreds of them on the "ditto" machine, purple ink and "ditto" fluid. We know that "ditto" means an exact duplicate. The reason I ask if it's a relevant term is because for years, we've said "ditto" to mean "exactly the same"... and I think everyone knows what it means, they maybe just don't know why... which might explain why, today, I saw someone use the word "dido" to mean... "ditto". If they can't spell it, then they have no idea what the word they are trying to use really means. Maybe we should just start saying "copy" or "xerox"... right?

4 comments:

Randy and Terry said...

Oh, Deanna, the reference to the blue ink dittos we got as kids made me laugh!! We did get a bit of rush from that smell, didn't we? :)

Just started reading your blog, not sure why I haven't before this. Oh, well. You can't hide now!

Take care!

deanna said...

Haha... yes, and it was even worse when they were still using them when I started working... and I had to MAKE them all! LOL

Oh, no! Now I'll have to go read yours as well!! ;-)

Linda said...

dido..I agree with you :) no I mean ditto...:) Yup I think he had no clue sorry to say... :)

kimsilver said...

You are so funny....
I remember making dittos for the kids when I student taught--and hoped they wouldn't be so "damp" when I handed them out.
You are right though....I bet kids have no idea why we say "ditto".