How Gullible

A little know fact that most people are oblivious to and to which most do not believe is;

Gullible is the only English word that was never entered into any of the world's leading dictionaries when first printed.

This is why, no matter how diligently and thoroughly you search any modern English dictionary, you will never find the word "Gullible".

Enjoy your searching….

I was at university studying computing and there was this young lady. A very intelligent lady when it came to computers. We would hang out with a few others and go through what we had learned through the week and bounce understandings of each other until we were sure we all understood each lesson.

Sometimes the gang would get together and have a few drinks to celebrate someone's small victory from a class. The ensuing discussions varied from topic to topic.

One such topic was the English language and I made the blanket statement that the English language was a strange language because a "fat chance" and a "slim chance" meant exactly the same thing (at least in Australia). Everyone agreed and laughed.

Another pointed out that content and content can mean differing things depending on the context. “He was not content with the content of the book”

This started a flurry of examples from each member of the group.

One of the members quoted G.K. Chesterton;

“The word ‘good’ has many meanings.  For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.”

Another came out with; Lite and light mean exactly the same thing. He said; “Try spelling lite in and exam in England or spelling light in an exam in the USA”

I chimed in with the word tense and how it can mean different things depending on context. Tense in a grammar sense is either past, present, or future whereas tense in a drama unfolding can be quite adrenaline pumping for example; the discussion became very tense.

Then the classic line came out that made us all sit back and ponder a bit; “If the brain was so simple that we could understand it then, we would have to be so male that we couldn’t”

Then there was the notion that a pair means two yet we can have a single pair of trousers.

Wow! This English language must be very confusing to people from other countries. Someone said; “Imagine trying to explain to a foreign visitor to our country that there is no egg in eggplant or pines in pineapples”

And what bout racing a building to the ground? This must make no sense to a foreigner.

So, I thought perhaps I would try something clever to see who would fall for it. I told everyone that the word “gullible” is the only English word not found in any English dictionary. They were astonished! Some of them knew where I was going with this. However, the very smart lady of the group asked me to say the statement again. So I the restated to this smart lady that the word "gullible" is the only word in the English language that does not actually exist in any dictionary.

About a week later the lady comes up to me and punches me in the arm! She scoffed and shoved a dictionary under my nose and said; "See! Gullible. It is in this dictionary.

I just smiled! She went on to be dux of the university for 3 years running. A few years later she came up to me and said; “You remember when you told me about the word gullible? I said yes I remember it like it was yesterday. She then told me that the following day after punching me in the arm it finally dawned on her that I was just seeing who was the most gullible in the group. She smiled at me and walked away.