By the end of my last “relationship,” we had so few words left for each other. How many other ways could we say, “I’m sorry” or “I unlove you” or “fuck you”? We used up all the words we knew until we chose silence over reiteration.
The Oxford English Dictionary is trying to solve this problem and save the words.
Why words are important: “Words are the cornerstone of language. The more words we have, the richer our vocabulary. Words allow us to communicate precisely. Without the right word to describe something, well . . . we’d be speechless.”
The other night I saw a movie with a friend. I wanted to discuss my thoughts and I asked, “So, was it like The Daily Show or Fox News?” He said, “I think it’s more like the movie Independence Day.” It was clear we had run out of words and communication had become a less-interesting system of comparison. Something is like something else because it’s getting harder to say something is . . . what exactly?
How to change this:
1. Adopt-a-Word: “Each year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language. Old words, wise words, hardworking words. Words that once led meaningful lives but now lie unused, unloved, and unwanted. Today, 90% of everything we write is communicated by only 7,000 words.” Blerg.
2. Spread the Word: Tired of the mundane, hackneyed, and overplayed ways to break up? Me too. Instead of saying, “It’s not you; it’s me”; “I think we should be friends”; or “We’re not right for each other,” how about saying what the OED suggests: “‘I amorevolous you, but I’m not in amorevolous with you.'” This way you can be smart, heartless, and a word humanitarian. Everybody wins.
Full disclosure: once you adopt your word, you’ll receive an e-certificate of ownership. My word is “pregnatress,” n., female power that generates or gives birth to something. I’ll use it in a sentence: “As pregnatress of The Rumpus, I will start a revolution elevating funny women.”
