The
English language gets abused on a regular basis. It used to be that a standard
of usage existed and those who didn’t honor it or conform to it were called out
for violating the communication norms that glue society together. Now, a pillar of the standard, Oxford
Dictionaries, is bending the rules to legitimize the bastardization of our
beloved language.
English
in America has been assaulted by:
·
32
million illiterates
·
Foreigners
and tourists
·
A
declining public education system
·
Pop
culture
·
Social
media
·
Email
shorthand
·
Rushed
texting
Emoji-filled emails
Emoji-filled emails
One
would think a dictionary would not succumb to the idiocy sweeping the country,
where words are coined so swiftly at the speed of the Internet. The dictionary, instead of waiting a number
of years to really see how a word or phrase is used and adopted – or if it just
disappears as quickly as it arrived – is now letting any utterance make the
cut.
It’s
not a novel idea that new words make their way into the dictionary. The times change – through medicine, science,
politics, technology and social interactions – and words must keep up and reflect such
changes. But Oxford Dictionaries is
inserting words that many people have never heard of or rarely use.
Maybe
I’m out of the dating scene for too long, but I just learned a new word:
“Brewer’s droop,” which means an inability for a man to hold an erection as a
result of drinking too much alcohol.”
This is not a new concept, so how did society describe this state of
arousal prior to such a term?
This
one sounds made-up: craptacular; meaning remarkably poor or disappointing, as
in very shitty.
Haterade
(excessive negativity) and yas (expressing giant pleasure) are the kind of
stupid words that need not be promoted by a dictionary. Once you allow such silly terms to be listed
with useful words, you muddy the entire dictionary. The rate of decline is swift.
Oxford
says it updates its collection every three months. It just dumped 300 words, slang terms, and
vulgarities into its vaunted dictionary.
Some
should have been in the there a long time ago, like cat lady and another, drink
text, is just an offshoot of drunk dial. Some are offensive, like sausage fest,
which crudely suggests that the majority of an event's participants are
men. What does one call the female
version? I shudder to ask.
Fitspiration
– someone or something that inspires one to exercise or improve their health
sounds cute but there’s no limit to attaching “spiration" to any and everything
– sexpiration, workspiration, travelspiration, etc.
Words
that would make real sense are things like “fake news,” “alternative facts,”
and “bigly” – and all of the other terms used by – or to describe – President
Trump. Those words – and his policies –
are truly changing how we communicate and what we think.
Maybe
Oxford Dictionaries wants to create a game – create your own word or phrase and
make it as useless as possible. If its goal is to create a whole new language –
or to ruin the one that this country has enjoyed for hundreds of years – it is
scoring high.
I
guess the good news is few people consult a dictionary or care to conform to
the language that is, so the chances of people adopting these few terms on a
mass scale is negligible. Sadly, the odds of people learning how to speak English properly also stand little
chance.
I
wonder if there is a word that can be crafted to describe the phenomenon of people
seeking to endlessly make up new words while remaining ignorant of the
established ones that the vast majority should know.
The dictionary’s
new words make it clear that alcohol is a major danger. I don’t want to suffer Brewer's droop, nor
drink text anyone, and I will have to hold back on revealing some truth while
under the influence, in vino veritas.
And I certainly don’t want to attend a sausage fest. Yas!
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2017©. Born and raised in Brooklyn, now resides in
Westchester. Named one of the best book marketing blogs by Book Baby
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