Words Matter
As a person who has always loved words, I am currently troubled by those who use them to make a living.
It seems that every news and information service — across all media — has reduced its use of a broad range of existing words to a much smaller pool of simplistic ones which are often, sadly, just plain repetitiously boring.
Take the word “unprecedented,” for example.
One would think that we are in the midst of historic events in every single sphere of our lives, each of which is “unprecedented.” Our weather, our politics, our sports and leisure, our religious lives, our relationships with everything and everybody everywhere are currently all unprecedented. We are told this repeatedly every day. It is exhausting to remain on the cutting edge of such an unprecedented life!
Two of the most widely respected dictionaries, Webster’s and the Oxford English, name a “word of the year,” often one that is new to our language. To my knowledge neither has ever chosen an old word and made it the word of the year.
Of course, life moves on and with it come infinite new and different experiences. Naturally, our language reflects that.
But most of our words also have roots deep in the past. It is fascinating to take the time to study their history, because what we learn is that very little is without precedent in our language or in the experiences they represent. What we fail to do is to recognize it.
Most of us grew up hearing that “there is nothing new under the sun.” What that meant was that folks recognized that each “new” thing was a version of an “old” thing, not always better and often a great deal worse, but at least it was recognized.
Recently, one of my cousins sent me photos of public signs at churches, schools, and along roadways, each sign containing a misused or misspelled word (or words) — in an age where information is literally in the palm of our hands. They were meant to be funny, of course, but he and I saw them only for the failures they represent. We as a society have become lazy, imprecise, and unconcerned.
Our news channels operate 24 hours every day, seven days a week, but they often rely on sensationalism and repetition. Our newspapers have tried to provide in-depth reporting and background, but we are too busy to read them; as a result, many of them have gone out of business. Our information radio stations have to beg for financial support because we would rather listen to opinion than fact. Our phones have become our primary companions, and we can go for days without a meaningful conversation with even our closest family members.
This is how we have become isolated, polarized, uninformed, and ultimately uneducated in an age when the things that really matter are so easily available. Words matter. Who speaks them matters. Tone of voice matters. Truth matters. History matters. What is sadly unprecedented is that we don’t seem to care anymore.
Lanny Parks has always loved books. She was a librarian at the EPFL in Baltimore, at Kent School, and Queen Anne’s County, and owned a local bookstore. Her weekly newspaper column ran for over 20 years. She has lived with her family in Chestertown for over 50 years.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
