I readily confess my love of words. Each day, I look for ways to incorporate them into my conversations, writings, and seek out new ones to add to my vocabulary. Sadly, I am pugnaciously fighting back a rising tide of anti-wordists. Anti-wordists who want us to scale back on using these precious jewels. Communications "expert" Joe McCormack says, "People spend about 8 hours a day consuming media. By that I mean it could be television, radio, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. It's a constant consumption of information. We're drinking from a proverbial fire hose. So when you look at the world around you, the mind is really, really burdened." His suggestions are that we are to avoid over-explaining, prepare what you want to say better, and speak in headlines--in other words, be brief. To him I say, what's the fun in that?
Words are like menu items. You may not care for the idea of squid, but the Calamari Fra Diavolo sounds delicious! Well chosen words add a zesty zing to otherwise mundane, even if convivial, conversation. A saucy, slithering word engages even the most sluggish imagination. An aptly selected word pushes emotional buttons to make us sometimes lustily guffaw with laughter or pour forth limpid pools of tears.
I say let us use more words! Let us use archaic words like antediluvian or crinoline. Or use onomatopoetic words like whoosh, pop, and pow. Let us use foreign words and expressions--for some of you, that may be English--like infant terrible, prêt-à-porter and gazpacho. Let's use colloquialisms like firewall, aggro, and bib and tucker. Let's split our infinitives and fire up the superlatives. Let's cause a run on our sentences. Let us misuse proper prepositions. Let's make our gerunds enjoy swimming. Let us amplify our adverbs, and objectify our adjectives.
Reverting to the menu metaphor, we can serve up a deeply satisfying melange of flavors in well-made word soup or we can subsist on lukewarm brevity broth.
Seriously--broth? Eww!
Words are like menu items. You may not care for the idea of squid, but the Calamari Fra Diavolo sounds delicious! Well chosen words add a zesty zing to otherwise mundane, even if convivial, conversation. A saucy, slithering word engages even the most sluggish imagination. An aptly selected word pushes emotional buttons to make us sometimes lustily guffaw with laughter or pour forth limpid pools of tears.
I say let us use more words! Let us use archaic words like antediluvian or crinoline. Or use onomatopoetic words like whoosh, pop, and pow. Let us use foreign words and expressions--for some of you, that may be English--like infant terrible, prêt-à-porter and gazpacho. Let's use colloquialisms like firewall, aggro, and bib and tucker. Let's split our infinitives and fire up the superlatives. Let's cause a run on our sentences. Let us misuse proper prepositions. Let's make our gerunds enjoy swimming. Let us amplify our adverbs, and objectify our adjectives.
Reverting to the menu metaphor, we can serve up a deeply satisfying melange of flavors in well-made word soup or we can subsist on lukewarm brevity broth.
Seriously--broth? Eww!
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