It’s Only Words

Words are funny old things (I hope your weren’t expecting a more original opening sentence). I find that words have the ability to provoke the most inappropriate irrational response and I mean solely based on their own merits, nothing to do with the context in which they’re used. Maybe it’s just me but I despise certain words. An example is the word ‘tube’, I hate it, it’s so tubey. If I took the time I could probably figure out why. Maybe it’s something to do with the long vowel, tuuuube. Lube is also irritating but the El takes the edge off somehow.

Also, other human beings have the power to render perfectly good words unusable. I find it particularly annoying when society selects a word, apparently at random and over uses it, shoe-horns it into the most unlikely sentences. It’s behaviour that can best be described as abuse! The word ‘random’ is just such a word, a really good word that I thoroughly enjoyed using until about six years ago. Genius is another one, oh how the mighty fall….  Alternatively, a sure fire way of degrading a word is to attach it to a current fashion such as ‘vintage’. ‘Vintage’ used to have an air of sophistication about it, the suggestion of a quality no longer readily available. Now, the very utterance of the word ‘vintage’ makes me want to hurl large inanimate objects through windows.

Maybe it’s just me, and my low tolerance of humanity. It’s not altogether unlikely that I’m destined to spend my later days living in solitude in a cave somewhere.