And that word was...

“OPPOSITE” Only 3 syllables… but so hard to understand!

Peppy (6) and Herbie (7) are standing beside the maple tree at the border between their two properties having a deep discussion, as children will. H (an exalted first grader) speaks of something as being “opposite”.
“Opposite? What’s that?’
“Opposite…you know, like when something is not like something else.”
“Huh?”
“Like my shoe is black and that flower is white…they’re opposite.”
“Huh?”
“Like…see that tree over there, okay, we are here…so we are opposite.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Well, y’know this tree, when you climb up to the top [I often did], I’m standing down here…that’s opposite. Get it?”
“No.”
“Well (patiently persisting), you know how an ice cube is, cold?”
“Yeah.”
“And the stove is hot?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they’re opposite, see?”
“Our stove is white… is everything white opposite?”
“No, no, no! …Look, you stand over there, and I’ll stand right here. Go on.”
Little Peppy runs over to the spot indicated.
“Now … we are opposite. You get it?”
“No, I don’t feel hot.”
“Urrrr… okay (sigh), that car (pointing to Mountain Avenue) is going that way, and that other car is going the other way. They are going in the opposite direction.”
“Oh!……….oh! I get it!”
“Opposite, opposite, opposite,” chortles Herbie, his mouth popping like a little pop gun.
Ding-a-ding-a-ding, goes the dinner bell my mother is shaking out the back door.
Inside the kitchen, “Mommie, Mommie, Herbie taught me a new word!”
“Oh?” alarm in her voice barely concealed. “What word?
“Opposite!! I know what opposite means!!”
“Ah, that’s nice, dear.”