Robert B. Simpson: Unwell words
These days I wake after an uncharacteristic four or five hours sleep, at most. Given that my current daily activity is resting, interrupted by brief bits of exercise, there's no reason to rush out of bed, but little reason to remain there awake, either. Once I'm up, the dogs fed and back in their crate for their after-breakfast snooze, I settle into a recliner and watch the gray smudge in the glass above the front door gradually change to real daylight. And, as I don't like noise that early, I enjoy the silence while I think.
Today I thought about words. I'd recently noticed on Facebook a list of overused, misused, or generally abused words. The first one, "literally," launched me into the middle of the subject. If I wanted to follow the modern habit of speech, I'd probably have said it "literally launched me," indicating that I was physically cast aloft and onto the target. But, no, all it did was make me think about how often I hear people say things like "you could literally have knocked me over with a feather." Well, no, not unless you are very tiny and I used a very large feather.
One of the listed words that has bothered me for a long time is "retard," emphasis usually placed on the first syllable. This is an unkind word for someone who is mentally challenged, a condition for which they are not responsible and which you'd think sensible people would not use as a slur. But many do. Some people who find it outrageous that they have to live in a world in which not everybody is as politically conservative as they are use a special combination, "libtard," to show their disdain for and disgust at those more politically progressive than they. And their lack of sensitivity toward mentally challenged citizens.
The ubiquitous "like" was listed, although I feel sure we've lost the war on that one. An amazing number of people seem unable to talk without using "like" as an unnecessary space holder or embellishment to their sentences. I long ago gave up watching the only late-night comic I find funny at all because he can't complete sentences without throwing "like" in the middle of them, endlessly.
I'm reluctant to attack our local television news folks, because I'm sure their job is tougher than it looks to outsiders. Knowing that your every word is being monitored and your actions observed by thousands of not necessarily sympathetic viewers has to be nerve-wracking. But I'd be more sympathetic if they'd stop saying "well." National reporters, led into a topic by the anchor, usually begin with either a brief "good evening" or else go straight into the subject. Our local folks almost always begin with "well." When anchor Josh says, "Mabel, I understand there was turmoil at that conference today," Mabel responds, "Well, Josh " When co-anchor Susan says, "George Smith arrived on the scene shortly after the wreck occurred," you can bet George will say, "Well, Susan " My wife has gotten really tired of hearing me utter "well" just ahead of the reporter, but I know it's coming and I can't resist. It may seem a small thing, but I'm so tired of "well." Why not just get on into your subject without that boring and repetitive space filler?
My treatment of this entire subject may seem a little casual, even cavalier, but I really consider it quite serious. Words are constant, everyday tools we all use, either precisely and effectively, or amateurishly and even misleading. You don't have to be an expert, and I'm not, and you don't have to be or consider yourself an intellectual, and I'm not, to wish one of our most useful tools could be used with a little more care. After all, we don't just communicate with words, we think with them too.
George Orwell, author of "1984," said that language can corrupt thought. I don't know about you, but my thinking is already sloppy enough without being corrupted by misused words.
Robert B. Simpson, a 28-year Infantry veteran who retired as a colonel at Fort Benning, is the author of "Through the Dark Waters: Searching for Hope and Courage."
This story was originally published August 29, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Robert B. Simpson: Unwell words."