Vocabulary.com Blog
Articles about Usage
Barack Obama gives his inaugural address today, but on Sunday he gave a speech that previewed the main event. "Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead," Obama said, "I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time." This line echoed his victory speech last November: "I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead." Is Obama misusing enormity, or is he inaugurating a semantic change?
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"Without euphemisms, there could be no good, so it must be good to be euphemistic sometimes."
So said George Washington at his Mount Vernon farm, setting the United States on its course as a euphemism-friendly nation, a path that is our patriotic duty to embrace. Continue reading...
Last week, Visual Thesaurus contributor and New York public school teacher Shannon Reed shared some experiences about the richness of student slang that she had encountered. Here is a counterpoint to Shannon's piece, from a new member of the VT sales staff, Elissa Seto. Before joining the VT team Elissa taught science at an urban middle school in the South Bronx. While a fan of slang, Elissa is also concerned about how student reliance on nonstandard speech may be symptomatic of what educators call the achievement gap.
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President-Elect Obama says we're "now on a glide path to reduce our forces in Iraq." He also says we're "on a glide path for long-term sustainable economic growth." What's up with all the gliding?
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In Napalm and Silly Putty, George Carlin wrote, "I don't like euphemistic language, words that shade the truth. American English is packed with euphemism, because Americans have trouble dealing with reality, and in order to shield themselves from it they use soft language."
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Another week, another Word of the Year selection! The latest comes from the editors at Webster's New World Dictionary, who have selected the useful verb overshare. They define it as: "to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval." It's certainly a word that captures the zeitgeist of the Age of Too Much Information.
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For Shakespeare it was "And let us two devise to bring him thither," but for us it's likely to be "And let's figure out how to get him there." This month in the Lounge we tip our hat to some English adverbs now in their dotage but still available for duty when called upon.
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