Funnest

     Writing the word bestest in yesterday's blog post reminded me of the story about funnest. When Amanda was in Creekland Middle School in the late 1990s, I would pick her up at the end of the school day once a week to take her to her piano lesson. During one of those semesters, we also gave a ride to one of Amanda's friends who had the same piano teacher and a lesson after Bodie's.

       One day both girls were in the car, in the back seat, chatting away about their day. I heard Amanda say that something that had happened had been the funnest.

       Our guest then corrected Bodie, “Amanda, funnest is not a word – the correct way to say it is most fun.”

       My eyes quickly darted to the rear view mirror to see how my daughter was going to react to this.

       Amanda's eyes were already there to meet me. They had a look that said, “what?”

       I quickly explained, “sometimes I make up words and use them at home. Everyone else says most fun, but I like to say funnest.” Amanda had heard this word at home – I hoped this was adequate for the friend who was a little surprised we were capable of such a grievous grammatical error.

       My eyes went back to the rear view mirror once again, and Amanda eyes were waiting for me again. They had a look of having been betrayed – how could I have done that to her – allow a mistake in grammar in front of her friend?

       Now, these many, almost 20 years, later, the word funnest is in the dictionary – with the caveat that it is used in informal English only, for now. (The word is not even highlighted in spell-check! how about that?) I would not say we were the family that put funnest into almost acceptable modern usage by any means, just that we were one of the first funnest families to incorporate it into our casual after-school conversation!

351 20151217 Funnest