Benjamin Franklin was not unlike other boys in his love for sophomoric
phrases. It is related that one day he told his father that he had
swallowed some acephalus molluscus, which so alarmed him that he shrieked
for help. The mother came in with warm water, and forced half a gallon
down Benjamin's throat with the garden pump, then held him upside down,
the father saying, "If we don't get those things out of Bennie he'll be
poisoned sure." When Benjamin was allowed to get his breath he explained
that the articles referred to were oysters. His father was so indignant
that he whipped him for an hour for frightening the family. Franklin never
afterward used a word with two syllables when a monosyllable would do.