I have only taken interest in this topic since the following happened to me on 31st August this year.
In the course of my work I measure up vehicles for making dog cages to fit precisely.
Customers visit us and bring their car, I measure up in all directions and for the purpose I have made a useful gadget that when placed on the floor of the car boot gives me a right angle, from which I can take measurements.
I was in the process of measuring a vehicle, when a small girl, who had come with her parents started chatting with me and asking the usual things like "What is that called?"
She asked me that of the measuring stick.
I said that it did not have a name, but if she would like to give it one that is what it will be called from then on.
She thought for a moment then said "Call it a Groma".
I fetched a piece of sticky paper and fixed it to the tool writing on the paper "GROMA".
As this appeared to be rather a boring name I suggested that it would sound better to be called a Gromulus, so I then wrote over the Groma "Gromulous".
That evening I mentioned to my wife that the tool now had a name a "Gromulus". She suggested that I look in a dictionary to see if there was such a word already.
There was no Gromulus but just prior to where it would be found I saw "Groma - a surveying instrument used by the Romans to construct right angles"
The next day I phoned the mother who had been with us at the time and told her the finding. Having told her the tale there was silence at the other end. I asked if she was still there. Yes she was but the hair was standing up on the back of her neck.
Aparrently this child, who was not there as the time as she had started school just that morning, frequently used the expression "When I was older".
On a visit to Warwick Castle visiting the costume exhibition she had said on several occasions "It was not worn like that".
An interesting fact is that a Groma was only discovered in the 1920s when Pompei was being uncovered. It had been lost since Roman times.
If anyone is interested to follow this lead to an amazing child please get in touch, I have the phone number of the mother who I would ask permission before passing this on.
In the course of my work I measure up vehicles for making dog cages to fit precisely.
Customers visit us and bring their car, I measure up in all directions and for the purpose I have made a useful gadget that when placed on the floor of the car boot gives me a right angle, from which I can take measurements.
I was in the process of measuring a vehicle, when a small girl, who had come with her parents started chatting with me and asking the usual things like "What is that called?"
She asked me that of the measuring stick.
I said that it did not have a name, but if she would like to give it one that is what it will be called from then on.
She thought for a moment then said "Call it a Groma".
I fetched a piece of sticky paper and fixed it to the tool writing on the paper "GROMA".
As this appeared to be rather a boring name I suggested that it would sound better to be called a Gromulus, so I then wrote over the Groma "Gromulous".
That evening I mentioned to my wife that the tool now had a name a "Gromulus". She suggested that I look in a dictionary to see if there was such a word already.
There was no Gromulus but just prior to where it would be found I saw "Groma - a surveying instrument used by the Romans to construct right angles"
The next day I phoned the mother who had been with us at the time and told her the finding. Having told her the tale there was silence at the other end. I asked if she was still there. Yes she was but the hair was standing up on the back of her neck.
Aparrently this child, who was not there as the time as she had started school just that morning, frequently used the expression "When I was older".
On a visit to Warwick Castle visiting the costume exhibition she had said on several occasions "It was not worn like that".
An interesting fact is that a Groma was only discovered in the 1920s when Pompei was being uncovered. It had been lost since Roman times.
If anyone is interested to follow this lead to an amazing child please get in touch, I have the phone number of the mother who I would ask permission before passing this on.
