The pride and joy of the English language are its many many words. But what good are they, if they are not used? There are too many words that languish in disuse and sullen idleness. I say: let’s take the language back and start again to use these hapless words.
So, please, list any words you would like to hear or read more frequently.
I’ll start, to break the ice, with just three:
Feckless
Example: I assure you, Nanohedron is not the feckless idiot he appears. On the contrary.
Vim
Example: Incensed and agitated by Dale’s words, I had just laid out my argument in detail, and with a good deal of vim, when my flow of prose was checked by the sound of his snoring.
Limpid
Example: And then, with limpid words she traced the Muse’s inspiration in her post.
If mayhap, I were to use such a word as that first one, I might risk being misunderstood to be saying something rather obscene. The more precise effectless, of which it is a corruption, might be more communicative, methinks.
Most people don’t realize that my continued and committed use of the word “reckon” is not homage to Jed Clampett but rather 18th century English. Reckon did not get transformed, though, like victuals (vittles) and vermin (varmints), so the confusion is understandable.
Its a very fine word, connected somehow to Norman French, no doubt (reconnaissance) and Sax. know (proving the k was once pronounced, btw) and all those Latin cog-words, and Scots “ken” (or however they spell it). Better than “guess” because it seems to imply more pre-determination or calculation, especially in the maritime context.
It was likely in Capt. James Cook vocabulary as well as Founding Fathers. .
Also, imho, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the most sustained, elegant use of the English language I have encountered. I loved reading those books, sometimes speaking out loud the sentences to hear the usage. I guess it was their Enlightenment values, knowledge of Latin and Greek, that drew them to certain words. I know they favored Norman/Latin over Anglo-Saxon choices.
People don’t use the word ‘niggardly’ very much. Tom Clancy used it three times in one novel, which was the very last book of his that I will ever read–not because of that word but because he used it THREE times. I just can’t stand him anymore.
Yeah, that word caused a ruckus here in Calaforny. Some darker-complected folks thot a city councilman was defaming them in describing budgetary practices.
So its easier to just not use it.
And Walden, it may be standard English but few here use it except me.
well FJohnSharp, I seem to vaguely remember some politician getting into some real hot water with the public for using the word “niggardly” a few years ago. Mostly due to it’s similarity to another “n” word that happens to be a racial slur, nevermind there’s not actually any connection between the two. Go figure. :roll:
For those not familiar with the Project Gutenberg site, do yourself a favor and take a gander. A huge repository of literary works that are public domain. For those of you who love to procrastinate at work it is an invaluable resource. If that doesn’t float your boat perhaps I could interest you in a lesson in the fine art of defenestration?
“Feckless”? Did you know, I actually do occasionally apply that word to myself! But I’m actually quite chock-full of feck, I can assure you. sigh I suppose that I will have to settle for that, failing the ringing accolades that are my due.
Here are a couple that I’d probably not use in normal conversation (like I actually have those):
Quotidian: of daily recurrence, as in “The noted decrease in Bloomfield’s formerly quotidian contributions to the Chiffboard in no way indicates that he has collided with the limits of his creative imagination. On the contrary.”
Crapulent: excessive in drinking and eating, as in “Get your grimy tentacles off of me, you crapulent, panhandling barfly.”
…but I’m more given over to the elegance of simple English as it is not only more effective in the practical, but also in its poetic force.
BTW, Bloo, glad to see you back to your original avatar. I approve.
