The English language can be strange for native speakers and foreigners alike. One key tool for getting the words right is a dictionary.
Going back to at least 2006, the Rotary Club of Durango, High Noon Rotary and Durango Daybreak Rotary clubs have brought an early Christmas to 373 students, primarily third-graders, by providing them with their very own dictionary.
The students attend elementary schools in Durango School District 9-R, and the Rotarians throw in St. Columba Catholic and The Liberty schools for good measure. The dictionary project cost almost $4,900 this year, and the clubs don’t just write a check, they wrap them and deliver the books, as well.
The deliveries started Thursday and will continue through the next week, so when the “Dictionary Santas” show up, it’s a surprise for students, although not their teachers.
Is a hard-copy dictionary still useful in this day and age?
“For third-graders, absolutely,” said Lynn May, who teaches upperclassmen at St. Columba. “Adults tend to think you look everything up on computers, but younger students don’t as much. They particularly love books.”
And mistletoe? It might ruin the romance for those who like to grab a smooch under the carefully placed holiday decoration after hearing what another dictionary, Webster’s, says about the “parasitic plant with yellow-green leaves, yellowish flowers and shiny, white, poisonous berries.” The name partially is derived from the German “mista” – or dung – from being propagated by seeds in bird dung.
abutler@durangoherald.com
