so peculiar

So I’m driving down the highway the other day, and there’s this town called Peculiar. And that got me to thinking about the word peculiar. Say peculiar a couple of times. It’s kind of funny. Well, that got me to thinking about the word funny.

In the English language we have several words that basically mean peculiar. There’s weird. There’s odd. There’s strange. Now wouldn’t you think with those four very capable descriptive words, we wouldn’t need to take another word and change its meaning so that it pretty much says the same thing as odd or strange or weird or peculiar?

But that’s what we’ve done with the word funny. How often do you say ‘that’s funny’ and not really mean that’s humorous? Funny is supposed to be about humor, about making you laugh. Now, granted some things that are funny are also weird or odd or peculiar. But generally, I’d say most things that are odd or weird are not also funny, and when we say, ‘that’s funny,’ we don’t mean humorous at all.

I suppose it’s one of the things that make learning the English language difficult for foreigners. It’s a little confusing. Perhaps, even, peculiar.