Wiston Papers

A few words about words

English is a living, evolving language.  As with all organisms it adapts to changing environments.  But not every environmental change produces positive results.

Those of you have read my various contributions over the years know that I have strong feelings about the abuse of certain words.

I dislike the seemingly mindless obsession of the media to attach “icon” to virtually every famous person, place or thing.  This practice persuades me that the writers who employ this word have never read a dictionary.  They don’t know the definition and have never encountered synonyms like “famous, legendary, historic, prominent, inspirational, notorious.”  Almost any one of these choices would be more accurate than icon.

My opposition to using the noun “impact” as a verb instead of the correct verb “affect” is widely known.  Also is my stance on the misuse of the verb “mix” instead of the noun “mixture.”

Today my irritation arises from the insistence of journalists to describe every out-of-business company as “shuttered.”  We no longer “close” factories or “lock their doors.”  Today we just shutter them--even in the case of failed online ventures.  I’ve never seen an electronic shutter (except on a camera).

When companies go out of business they don’t “lay off” employees anymore.  Previously  workers were “reduced in force” (sounds almost benign). They used to be either “dismissed” (less kind)  or “fired” (even harsher).  

Today American businesses don’t even consider their workers as human beings when cutting them loose. Now companies “shed” employees as if they were some disgusting, dead, useless artifact to be discarded quickly as we pinch our noses to avoid the stench.  

Media coverage of the collapsed housing market has resulted in the almost equally disastrous use of “underwater” to describe people who own homes with declining values.  We certainly can’t use the accurate term “undervalued” to describe such houses.  Instead we attach “underwater” then have to explain it every time.

Governor Mitt Romney is the Republican Party Presidential candidate.  But the media insist on calling him the “presumptive” GOP nominee.  Of course, we don’t need to call him the nominee at all until after the party’s national convention.  Right now it’s enough to describe him simply as the Republican candidate because all other GOP contenders have dropped out of the race.  

Finally, not everything or everyone is “awesome.”  I use the word sparingly.  It’s appropriate when describing the universe and the barely comprehensible distances between stars and galaxies.  I consider the earth’s oceans awesome.  They cover nearly 80 percent of the planet.  And the Grand Canyon struck me as awesome when I first saw it in person.  

English continues to change, we adopt new words, abandoned old ones, and misuse familiar ones.  I accept that.  I just don’t have to like it.  And I really, really think that journalists should be held to a higher standard when working with words.  

But this trend is not surprising when you look at the media landscape and see so many iconic newspapers shuttered or underwater, shedding their workers in the mix and impacting the economy.  Perhaps I’m presumptive, but it’s awesome.

Steve Coon

July 18, 2012