Morning Meditation

Sometimes I like to ponder on how certain words or phrases came into existence.  For example, as I was scrambling some eggs for myself this morning, I contemplated the phrase, "Guess what?!"  (I'm always unsure how to punctuate that...is it a question or a command?)  Think about it.  That phrase just doesn't make sense without some context.  Who first thought to tell someone to guess "what"? I must say, the conversations I imagined that might have led to this phrase while cooking this morning are incredibly cute:

A young man and woman living in some early American city enjoy frequent conversations with one another. Their usual repartee goes something like this:

Virginia:  How are you today Edgar?
Edgar: Quite fine, quite fine.  And you Virginia?
Virginia: Splendid Edgar, just splendid.  Something extraordinary happened today.
Edgar: Truly? What?
Virginia (coyly): Guess what.
Edgar (chuckling): Oh, ho. You discovered a new bread recipe?
Virginia: Precisely Edgar!

These kind of conversations occur often: one of the two reveals that something excited has occurred, the other questions "what" and the first cutely tells the other to "guess what."  Then, one day, Edgar rushes in with some over-the-top news to share with Virginia.  About to begin the usual amorous conversation, Virginia says, "How are you--" but is cut off short as Edgar is so eager to share his news that he skips ahead in the conversation:

Edgar (excitedely): Guess what!
Virginia: Umm... You've decided to become a poet?
Edgar: Yes, but, more importantly, I've just decided we're getting married!
Virginia: Sweet!

What started out as a cute endearing game of "I want you to guess my exciting news" soon became a common expression used to tell someone you have something to share with them: "Guess what!"

Or, at least, that's what I imagined happened as I was cooking this morning.  I kind of have an overactive imagination.  When I think about words/phrases too long or too closely and realize that they make no grammatical sense, I like to hypothesize explanations for how those words/phrases came to be.  This may be heavily tied to the fact that I'm taking an introduction linguistics class this semester and it's making me overly conscious of how words are used and said.  Now that you've all realized I'm a complete /krezi/ person....