As a family, we always used a rich vocabulary, and my kids, while they don't frequent AWAD, do still have, more often than not, the right word.
Once, as a child, my daughter, still abed at 11 AM, was told by her father, "Get out of bed with alacrity!" she rolled over, looked at her father, and said, "Alacrity can get up if she wants, but i want to stay in bed" and rolled back under the covers. Her father wanted to continue being stern, but we were both laughing so hard, it was impossible!
it has spoilled the word for me..i can never use it, or even hear it, without a half a smile.
Once year, we openly discussed if our son was old enough to scullery...(just before the holidays) He pleaded, and his sister claimed, "not fair", she want to scullery, too. neither of them bothered to look up the word... and starting that year, both kids were responsible for clearing the table, loading the dishwasher and cleaning up in the kitchen!
ephemeral(one of Dr bill's words below the fold)was also commonly used... we always warned the kids, verbal assent to many of their requests was ephemeral...
can we go to disney world? yeah, sure.
but since we didn't go right then and there, tomorrow we were free to make other plans.
