Unbagging the Cats 1

Unbagging the Cats 1

Monday, April 11, 2011

A Personal Peccadillo

Do you have words that annoy you? Words that jangle on your last throbbing nerve? Words that have never done anything to you, personally, to elicit such revulsion?

Here are some words I do not care for. Words that I can't give a fair shake.


Onus, peccadillo, hausfrau, Amanpour, chromatids, tantamount, quesadilla, parsimonious, subterfuge, uber, fractious, qualms, schadenfreude, obfuscate, bloviate, ogle, titmouse, promulgate, giblets, putrid, harridan, brooch, milquetoast, clabber, junket, thesaurus.

I don't like the looks of them. Nor do I like their sound. Which is not to say that I would never use them.


Other words please me. I overuse them. I try to find convoluted reasons to include them even more. 

Sternocleidomastoid, shenanigans, usurp, faux pas, nefarious, flibbertigibbet, ruse, curmudgeon.

That second list seems short. I can never summon up the word I want when I want it. I have to stop thinking so hard, move on to something else, let it blindside me.

Here is one phrase the sets my teeth on edge: "Beyond the pale." It has nothing to do with shades of hue. But that is how I think most people use it. 

Let's retire this saying. Grab it a hand-crocheted shawl, put neon-green tennis balls on the feet of its walker, pour it a hot toddy and place it on the end table upon a lace doily, set the TV to a marathon of Murder She Wrote, order it a Jitterbug telephone, and crank up the thermostat to 80 degrees. Mission accomplished. "Beyond the pale" is officially out to pasture.

Cranky old curmudgeon, ain't I?

6 comments:

knancy said...

Euphonia was an answer (actually the question)on Jeopardy this evening. It was an audio in the "eu" words category. Needless to say, I rang in before any of the three on TV (amazing what words you pick up in Hillbilly country). Now I will be waiting for flibbertigibbet.

Author Joshua Hoyt said...

You have a great way of writing things that makes me smile. I really enjoy reading your blog. I may though never come back because you don't like the word quesadilla. This word was made famous in the movie "Napoleon Dynamite". j/k. Most of those words I am going to need a dictionary for :)

Val said...

knancy,
It pays to increase your word power. It there's one thing I learned sitting around the doctor's waiting room reading Reader's Digest, that was it.
__________________________

Josh,
My favorite part of Napoleon Dynamite was the picture Napoleon drew of that girl. It was hideous. I also enjoyed watching him try feed Tina, the llama.

knancy said...

I had an instructor in school that used the vocabulary pages of Reader's Digest as a learning tool and quiz for grade points. Personally, I liked the humor in the back of the little condensed book. But the vocabulary was useful.

Val said...

knancy,
That little gem was fraught with humor. In Uniform, Life in these United States, All in a Day's Work, and those fillers the end of the articles. I haven't read it in a while, because my gift subscription lapsed.

Author Joshua Hoyt said...

Those are wonderful parts. I hated the movie the first time i watched and was forced to watch it a second time and regrettably ended up loving it :)