Monday, January 7, 2013

On Ditching the Epic Snark


Today is about words-- the clay of our craft, the fiber with which we spin our yarns, and so on and so forth. (Insert suitable metaphor here.)

Do you use your thesaurus whilst writing?  I do-- Unapologetically.  I find that my feeble, aging brain wants to use the same words over and over again, while at my more youthful core, I’m all about choices.  It’s not that I don’t know another word for “bright”, it’s just at that moment, I can only think of the last two synonyms I most recently employed, and I need more options—now please! My brain is cramping!

Our national vocabulary is shrinking.  Compared to say, an Elizabethan Englander’s pantheon of words, here in modern-day America our lexis is dwindling to a shadow of its former self!  Comedian John Branyan proves this point delightfully (on YouTube) where he tells “The Three Little Pigs” in Shakespearean English, making clear the startling difference.  (Make sure to stick with it until the hilarious ending.)

So fabulous Readers, once a week on Mondays--if you can stand it, I shall bring forth from the vault a word that is pining for more usage; a dusty, old workhorse resting somewhere on forgotten laurels.  The challenge?  Simply to use it—merely once that day, perhaps on a manifesto like Twitter and before we know it, we are littering the world with erudite gleanings, enriching the vocabulary of the world, one word at a time!  (shiver!)

Oh--If anyone can think up a name for this super-hero in the making, I’ll use it!

Word for today: 

Erudite:  Having or showing knowledge that is gained by studying.

As an adjective it should be simple enough to work into conversation.  Erudition is more of a challenge, meaning: the depth, polish and breadth that  education confers. 

To finish, I would like to draw attention to some naughty, overused words,  which are hogging valuable space in our brains and in our language.  These words are not only starting to stink like an over-ripe banana, but are taking the place of other words waiting, anxiously at the gate.

Heading the naughty list is “epic”.  This word should never be used again unless the user is referring to a work by Homer. Punishment for usage would be having to read said work by Homer. 

“Snarky” has appeared, not of her own accord, for she is a word of much merit, however overuse is rendering her true meaning—well, meaningless.  I fear this fabulous word will suffer the fate of other like words, such as “bitchin’”, and sometime in the very near future, when one is asked how their Subway sandwich is, the response will merely be, “Totally Snarky, Dude.” So back off the snark, so she will remain ever-fresh and useful at times when only snark will suffice.

“Thing”.  Valuable at times, but it is being used as a poor substitute for words that have lost their rightful place, as in “Can you hand me that…thing over there?”  We’ll just attribute that one to Seasonal Depression and lack of Vitamin D this time of year.  All of you living in sunny climates have no excuse!

“Dystopian”.  I have nothing to say.  (Not being—like, snarky here.)

What are your favorite words?  Do you have any that pop into mind?  Which words do you keep in your back pocket, pulling them out at parties to dazzle others?

Go!  Populate the earth with animated, brilliant words.

 Use use ‘em or lose ‘em, Folks.

21 comments:

  1. Welcome to IWSG, Jill. It's nice to meet you. Great post. I have a built in Thesaurus on my computer, so all I have to do is click on the word, then scroll down to Synonym to find a better choice. Don't know what I'd do without it.

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  2. Thanks for the welcome and the comment Joylene. I like my synonym with sugar!
    I use my word program's thesaurus often too, as I confessed earlier. I always strive to make the thesaurus-gleaned words sound as natural as possible, and not too "thesaurus-sounding" if you catch my drift. Perhaps too much of a good thing could alienate my readers, who might be wise to my ways. Perhaps it is all about balance.
    Nice to meet you and I'm heading to your blog straight-away!

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  3. Hopping over from IWSG! I also use the thesaurus on my computer, as well as the Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. One word I'm sick of hearing is OMG. I'm not talking about what it stands for, but literally, O-M-G. It's bad enough reading it all the time in texts, but then to hear groups of girls squealing it... You get my point. :)

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  4. Oh My Dog! How could I have forgotten OMG in my naughty list? Not even a word and geting all that attention. For shame.
    Thanks for the stopping by and for your comment, Diana!

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  5. Growing up words like "groovy" and "neato" were popular, though I seldom used them. Every once in awhile I'll find myself saying, "That's neat" instead of "cool," and I really outdate myself. Great post, and it's nice to meet you Jill!
    Julie

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  6. How funny! Growing up in NoDak 'twas common to say "Fer neat!" and I still use it requently (except in my illustrious prose) and I will NEVER give up "groovy". NEVER!
    P.S. Did you love the Brady Bunch too?
    Thanks for the fun comment and for being a follower, Julie! (warm fuzzies!)

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  7. Ooooh - favorite words! I have to admit to loving curses, except I love the old-fashioned, fauxbrit varieties: Blast, bloody hell, crikey, billions of blistering blue barnacles. There are great American oaths as well: Baloney! And my daughter's version: "What the fluffy underpants!"

    Yup, sign me up for creative curses that don't use four-letter words.

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    1. Fie upon thee! Thou art a spleeny, boil-brained, swag-bellied maggot-pie!
      I smell ya Sister! Many thanks for the comments and for signing on as a felicitous follower. (warm fuzzies)
      p.s. I shall use the "fluffy underpants" curse until I die!

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  8. Thanks for visiting my blog recently. I must admit that I'm guilty of using, perhaps overusing, some of the words you've listed here. Another word that is overused is "foodie." But again, I use this word pretty frequently because I'm rather particular about my food, and rather than describing myself as a picky eater, I just like to call myself a foodie. Now I'm hungry.

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  9. Thanks for the confession, Cynthia, and don't worry. We all use those words--hence the blog. I'm particularily bad about using the word "thing". Sigh. Not even a cool word. Just a I've-forgotten-the-real-word-because-I'm-stoopid kinda word.
    Foodie? Let's let that one slide. It's much better than "vegan". Thanks so much for the comment. Love them!!

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  10. I, too, have a harder time bringing forth the vocabulary from the back of the brain these days. I have no problem consulting my Synonym Finder to jog my memory.

    And I like the idea of highlighting a new word each Monday. That was one of the things I loved about the main character, Mattie, in the novel A Northern Light. But I'm not giving up my snark. I draw the line there! :P

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  11. Dear L.G.
    Oh Heavens! Never give up the snark! I only cautioned against overuse due to my own wanton, flagrant abuse of the word. Is "snarkarific" going too far? Thanks for visiting and I loved reading your blog earlier today.
    ~Just Jill
    P.S. It could be timely to reread Jack London's non-fiction account of his voyage "The Cruise of the Snark".

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  12. Love your 'naught list'! And yes, I <3 my thesaurus.

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  13. I totally agree!! I can't think of words nearly as well as I used to--but I love my thesaurus. :)

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  14. I love my theaurus too! Or should I say, I adore it, I worship it, I have a fondness for it...
    Thanks for stopping by today. I'll buzz over to your blog and see what's up!
    ~Jill

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  15. I do use a thesaurus, but only when revising or editing. I leave notes to myself in my first draft to find a more appropriate word. :)

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  16. Great idea! THanks for stopping by Damyanti.
    ~Jill

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  17. I have a friend who constantly uses the word erudite. I think it might be her favorite word :)

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Johanna. I dnjoyed your blog this morning!
      Alas, a word oft used ends up on the naughty list eventually.
      ~Just Jill

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  18. I use the thesaurus while writing. But if I'm on a roll I'll put parentheses around a placeholder word and come back to it later instead of stopping my forward progress to look it up.

    I like the word vex. I think that should be used more. I've never personally used erudite but I know what it means. Now I'll have to work it into conversation.

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Please use your words and comment freely! We really should meet!