By most accounts – and counts -- there are close to a quarter million words in the English language.
Of course, a lot of them are reserved only for spelling bees and the SAT – and then set aside for non-use by 99 percent of the population.
Apparently, doing well on your SAT means knowing the meaning of words like redolent, bedaub, cabal,
phlegmatic, bellicose, abrogate, sybarite, redress, surreptitiously and contumacious. By my unofficial count, Ive used two of those words in the last year.
But lately, Ive been noticing that its not the long words, the big words or the hard words that give us trouble. It is, instead, the itty-bitty ones.
Dead. Die. Died.
Theres no better word – or group of words – to convey the idea of dead than dead. So why dont we use it? As a former editor of obituaries (a.k.a. death notices), I used to keep an unofficial accounting of all the clichés people used to say so-and-so is dead.
We dont die. We pass away. We pass on. We cross over. We rest in the arms of Jesus. We leave this earthly sphere.
Even Charles Dickens, oft criticized for wordiness, could use cut to the chase: Marley was dead.
I would go by the rule of verification: never print in the newspaper anything that can not be verified by at least two sources. I have no idea what happens to you after you die. I know only that you are dead. And if you were in my stack of obituaries, thats what you were. Where you went after, who meant you there and whether you deserved to be there or not were a matter between you and your Higher Power.
Were all going to die, for sure. Its an unpleasant thought, but true. Sugarcoating it does not change it.
So, the other morning, Im listening to the news and I hear another term: military action. This is the context of ending the military action in Iraq.
There used to be AP Stylebook entries for various military actions and how to use each. It was OK to say World War I and World War II, but the military action in Korea was a police action and the military action in Vietnam was to be known as the Vietnam Conflict. Later, someone broke down and admitted it was the Vietnam War. I have absolutely no idea how it got changed. Those stylebook editors are a curious lot.
Im sure if you were in one of the latter two, you didnt call it a police action or a conflict. If you are somewhere fighting an enemy who is fighting back and both you and the enemy have the potential to get killed, I think that would qualify as a war.
We were at war in Iraq, at war in Vietnam and at war in Korea. We just dont like the word war, maybe because it implies an ugly fight in which people will suffer and die.
I have a conflict with The Nipper over when homework will get done. To call a war a mere conflict strips it of its gravitas. I imagine if you fought in a war, you know what I mean.
Maybe we just like to avoid words that describe things that are distasteful to us. Still, it doesnt change the fact that life is full of distasteful things. Call then what you will, the meaning remains the same.
Wooster Weekly News columnist Tami Lange can be reached via e-mail at tam108@hotmail.com.
