My Aspie's Vocabulary

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The love of my life is an Aspie. I cant help but notice his vocabulary. We are expecting our first child together. An example would be he calls children, kids, etc., offspring, instead of the former. Lol! He uses the correct words but not the common terms for things. Any other Aspies do this?

What are commonly called "escorts", I call by the more formal term "prostitutes". They always seem to react viscerally to my overly formal speech.

Using very precise words like that is a way for us to communicate better. It's very difficult for us to be vague and let the subtext convey the rest of what we mean, so instead, we say exactly what we mean, using words that have specific meanings. Many of these words are rarer, because common words gain very broad meanings through their widespread usage.

"Child" is defined as (Merriam-Webster) : "a young person; a son or daughter".
"Offspring": "a person's child; the young of an animal or plant"

The difference here is that "offspring" specifically refers to a child in the context of it being YOUR child, the person continuing your family line, carrying your genes. Compared to that, "child" can refer to anyone in the right age range, and it's the context that determines whether you're talking about your own child. If I had to guess, I would say your guy is probably thinking, "Wow! We're going to make a whole new human being! Isn't that cool?"

Link: XKCD's take on it

That's not overly formal, it's just blunt. "Escort" is a euphemism for "prostitute"; "prostitute" is actually the more common word, and has the least connotation.

Euphemisms are substitutions that people use to distance themselves from a topic they consider unpleasant. For example, they may say someone has "passed away" rather than "died", or that they are "using the restroom" rather than "peeing". "Escort" implies, "I want to say 'prostitute' respectfully." If you were to say, "whore", it would mean the opposite--"I want to say 'prostitute' disrespectfully", a dysphemism.

Here's more on euphemisms:
Wikipedia: Euphemism

That explains a lot! I wasn't sure if it was just something he does or if it is common for Aspies to do it. It makes sense! I find myself picking up on this and saying things the way he does. Am I turning into an Aspie? Just kidding! I am as NT as they come I guess but he is also rubbing off on my 6 year old son with his vocabulary. My son talks as if he is a lot older. And yes, we have created a new being and this will be his first child, er, offspring, lol!

Neurotypicals are very good at mirror empathy--when they're around others, they start to act more like those people. You probably act differently with your child, versus with your boss, versus with your adult friends, right? That's because you're with different people. Picking up your husband's habits is yet another example of this mirror empathy at work. Just like you don't "turn into" the people you spend time with, you're not turning into an Aspie. I would call it more like "catching on" to his style of communication.

Autistics usually have less tendency to mirror others, and interact more consistently from social group to social group (for example, might talk to a six-year-old the same way they would talk to their supervisor). Changing social styles is rather difficult for people who had a very hard time learning to socialize in the first place! Instead of automatically copying others, we learn to understand others by thinking about them, like you might learn a second language. It's a very fascinating second language, and one that lets us talk to people we care deeply about--but it'll always be a little awkward and foreign to us.

I was just making a bad joke, but thanks for the lesson.

I call sluts, harlots. I call hookers, lookers. I use big words in big meandering sentances that usually go nowhere. This is why I need lookers and harlots to come and spank my bum chops.

He does do this with my son, lol! He speaks to him, sometimes, like an adult and I have to remind him sometimes that my son may not understand his meaning so I step in and break it down for my son. Its not a bad thing and my son speaks very well for his age. My fiancé has learned to speak to him in a less adult like manner but its a work in progress. I have picked up a lot from him, but he has picked up a lot of my sarcasm, lol! He will pop off with a sarcastic remark, usually something I have said before, and it cracks me up. I was worried about him fitting in with my family since they are loud, sarcastic human beings who will say what they feel at any given moment. I have given him plenty of warning and so far so good! I do love how he talks!

My favorite book as a child was Alice in Wonderland, for several reasons, one of which being that it ridiculed in a whimsical way the sort of absurdity that common humans call logic. I have always enjoyed the Mad Tea Party conversation that revolves around the notion of "Meaning what you say, and saying what you mean," because so many people do neither.

I'm another aspie who calls an offspring an offspring, though this might just be because I'm studying zoology, My mum seems to find it funny when I use precise words from zoology in an everyday context. Unless I'm trying to appear NT I usually try to say exactly what I mean. It frustrates me when other people don't do this.

Aspies, like myself, can have a tendency to use words other than what one might consider 'normal' in an effort to be as precise as possible in our communications so as not to be misunderstood.
Ironically, this seems to lead to more communication difficulties a lot of the time with people with less extensive vocabularies, so I've learned to try to 'dumb down' my speech a bit when talking to 'normal' people so as to not have to define words, making them feel stupid and making me seem like a condescending jerk.
Hwever, many subjects are, imho, not conducive to being discussed or spoken about accurately without the use of precise terminology which is often not part of most peoples' lexicons.