Taking words personally
Are there specific words you just hate?
I remember a discussion in high school English about examples of onomatopoeia. A girl offered "ugly." The teacher asked how that was an example, and the girl said, "Well, I think the word 'ugly' is ugly."
Anyway, some participants in the American Copy Editors Society forum have some they hate. How about utilize, spearhead, fruition, brandish and imprimatur?
Yeah, they don't bother me either. Do you have any?
Thanks, Pam, for the pointer.
Comments (2)
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There are some commonly used jargon words out there that we could probably do without 99 percent of the time. "Utilize" is almost always hideous. Some of the nouns-as-verb discussions fall in here. Usually, it's the way some bureaucrat or cop talks and it gets echoed into a story.
But I have a hard time saying that any word should be verboten. Words all have their use. "Imprimatur" is a 25-cent word, but there are occasions where it captures exactly what's being said or done, better than "lent approval" or "agreed." Would you deny us the use of "defenestrate" when someone gets chucked through a window?
This is the kind of conversation that's likely to caus a conflagration between writers and editors.
Posted on February 8, 2008 2:20 PM
Can I cheat and use a two-word construction?
"It depends." The stupidest answer to any question. If "it" didn't "depend" then I wouldn't need to ask, would I?
I sort of hate "plethora." I think people often use it when they mean to say "abundance."
Posted on February 19, 2008 11:10 AM