update: reckon

It came to my attention the other day that, while I was convinced I had blogged about "reckon" before, GarryWith2Rs did not know why "reckon" was such a bad word for an American. Seeing as GarryWith2Rs is by far my most devoted reader aside from my mother, this worried me tremendously. If he did not know the depths of his own depravity, how would other mere casual Australian readers? I decided a update post was in order, and I shall tell you exactly what I told him. (Being a teacher of ESL, I have learned that the best way to answer sticky questions about, say, anatomical terms is as directly and correctly as possible. I face this question with the same stalwart professionalism.) Reckon is, in American English, very, very hick.

Personally I do not risk saying it -- I know I should face lifelong ridicule and lose all my intellectual credence instantaneously if I ever so much as started to say the word amongst my American friends. They'd probably still say hello to me out of politeness, but I reckon that'd be it.