Pee (n) urine

Pea (n) a round, green vegetable.

We recently returned from wonderful vacation time with my son, daughter-in-love and the littles.  With one grand on the cusp of being fully potty-trained there was a whole lot of talk of bodily functions.  It got me thinking again about the wonder of words. Where did the word pee originate from?  It’s actually from the 1300’s Old French, pissier, meaning to urinate.  How did it become pee?  The evolution was simply a shortening of the original word from piss to pee.  The same form of the word acts as a noun as well as a verb, no vulgarity intended.

Here’s where the conversation may have strayed.  My son is an avid gardener.  Speaking of this year’s additions to the garden, any mention of pea plants perks the ears up of the youngest offspring.  Is it a pee plant or a pea plant?  Truly a laughable moment!  The origin of pea derived from a number of sources ranging from Middle and Old English, pease or pise and the Latin and Greek, pisum and pison.

Whether you are a gardener enjoying the abundance of your recently sowed seeds or the parent struggling with the inevitable potty-training phase of a toddler, the battle of the pee or pea has come up.   Who would have thought the two unlikely paths would intersect!  Little ears and their interpretations of our conversations make us even more aware of the confusion of the spoken word.  May your garden have an abundant harvest of peas and not pee!