Monday, February 26, 2007

Trite salutations

I met a guy and gave him my number. He text-messaged me everyday, at least three times a day. In the mornings he would text, “Good morning;” in the evenings, “Good night;” and “How is your day?” in between. These messages cost money to receive, five cents a message! So, finally, I text-messaged the following: “You’re sweet, but if you’re going to text me please send me messages with more substance and content instead of these trite salutations. =) Thanks!” He did not respond and I felt guilty that I might have offended him with my snobbery. Later that evening, I saw him and inquired if everything was all right. He said, “It took me two hours to figure out what ‘trite’ means; then another hour for ‘trite salutations.’”

Why didn't he just refer to the dictionary? I have no idea.

trite ('trIt) adj. hackneyed or boring from much use; not fresh or original
salutation ("sal-y&-'tA-sh&n) n. an expression of greeting, goodwill, or courtesy by word, gesture, or ceremony

2 comments:

jenna said...

I love this story.

I can't believe you took the time to text message that though! I use all the punctuation, but long words are far beyond my patience to attempt :)

el chino reale said...

story sounds familiar. nothing wrong with being linguistically snobby, though it stands in stark contrast to you being sweet and compassionate. maybe just establish more rigid criteria for giving out your number. "sure you can have my number... but first i need a limerick..."