Until the age of 11 or so, I didn’t get that “heresy” wasn’t the same as “hearsay”. I just thought that, I dunno, they were variant spellings for the word HEER-say.
I think this is an indication, as much as anything, of how my mom failed to pound me over the head with heavy-hitter Catholic ammo—the only time we heard the word “heretical” around the house was when we were watching Python doing “Spanish Inquisition” skits.
Heh. I really don’t think the word “heretical” is used nowadays. My parents *did* give us the heavy Catholic upbringing and they would simply say “we don’t believe that” to such things.
I grew up thinking that Beethoven was pronounced Beeth-hoven. I knew of Beethoven, just never put the two together until, well, High School. Damn you, Peanuts cartoons!