Power of Words

Do you notice how some words just grab you? Some grab you by the throat, others by the ass, while still others might grab you by the heart. There are around 170,000 English words in current use, and an additional 47,000 obsolete words – I looked it up.

I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t know that many words, although I probably know a few more than the average person on the street. I’m a reader, and studies show that people who read regularly know more words than those who don’t.

I’m also a writer. So, you might not be surprised to discover that I occasionally use some high-falutin words in my novels. (High-falutin means pretentious or pompous). Here’s a good example: I love to insert the word “tumescent” in my novels. It means engorged - “especially as a response to sexual arousal” according to the dictionary. I don’t know why, but that word cracks me up for some reason. My brother told me he had to look it up the first time he encountered it in The Eighth Day. He thought it was odd that I used that word rather than something in the vernacular column of word choices.

My literary peccadillos aside, there are many powerful words that often have the ability to stop you in your tracks when you hear them or see them in writing. Words like massacre, slaughter, and assassinate are the kind of words that can grab you by the throat. They’re certainly not subtle and there’s never anything positive about the message that words like these convey. The distressing thing is, we hear these words just about every day in the news. It’s hard to avoid words like these in our lives.

Some words are used to “clean up” other words, those that tend to upset us. Words like casualties, collateral damage, losses, and fatality can buffer the potential horror of more graphic words. Most of us don’t want to think too hard about things that are repulsive or ghastly, and we don’t want to hear the lurid details of atrocities or savagery.

It seems to me that “anger” is on the rise throughout the world. It’s a word that you hear a lot these days. We have many words to convey the feeling of anger, and I suppose we all experience anger at least once in a while. I admit that there are plenty of things that annoy, irritate, exasperate, or provoke me; ergo, make me angry. I like the word “vex” though. It’s the sort of word I might use in a novel – “She suffered a life of persistent vexation caring for her ten children while that no good, vagabond husband of hers wandered from town to town selling those damned encyclopedias.”

A good word to use when talking about anger is “vitriol”. I started hearing that word around the time of the 2016 election. The frequency of bitter, caustic language seemed to pop up out of nowhere. It had its roots in politics, where political pundits, commentators, and operatives pumped the media with speeches that veritably dripped vitriol in their venomous attacks against each other.

I suppose all that anger, prejudice, and hate has always been around, lurking in the shadows and under the proverbial rocks of our society. But this elevated level of harsh criticism has become rather commonplace these days, so much so, and so exaggerated at times, that it often strikes me as darkly humorous. This happens when the rhetoric stoops to the level of puerile, playground name calling, which now occurs with alarming frequency. Puerile is another great word to add to your vocabulary. If somebody is vexing you in a childish manner, you can retort by accusing them of being a pugnacious puerile agitator. They will likely not understand what you mean and come back with a playground standard like, “Yeah? Well, you’re a poophead.” This kind of insult will reinforce your assertion of their puerility and is a strong indicator that you will not be able to engage in an intelligent exchange of ideas with this person.

Some words are obviously meant to insult and offend, and these are words that tend to grab you by the ass (that’s a figure of speech). Perhaps “kick you in the ass” is more accurate. Even words that were perfectly normal at one time in the past, and not associated with any sort of unprepossessing connotation, might now be hurled as a pointed barb. Lately, it would seem that just calling someone a Democrat or a Republican is meant to be an insult, the source of the insult from both sides inferring that the other side is guilty of kakistocracy. That’s a pretty good insult when you find out that kakistocracy means government by the worst people.

Of course, there are more sophisticated insulting words which you can use to impress your friends while offending those who vex you. Take “pusillanimous” for example. This is a great word to tease your friends with when they refuse to go python hunting with you in the Everglades or attach a giant “Biden Rules” flag to their Subaru.

Most of you know that using the word “asshole” is a favorite of mine, due to the fact that the world is full of them. The word is quite effective and definitely an insult. But if that word offends you or you don’t want to use it in public, you can use the word “coccydynia”, which is a medical term for tailbone pain, specifically a pain felt in the last bone of the bottom of the spine - the tail bone. So, euphemistically, referring to a person as a coccydynia is tantamount to calling them an asshole. Aren’t words fun?

I often think of the word “outrage” these days. I hear so many outrageous comments, accusations, and assertions coming from people who often seem as though they live in an alternate reality. The problem with outrage is that it is essentially impotent when directed at those who are shameless, willfully ignorant, and inherently illogical. This situation sometimes makes me wonder if words like hope, optimism, and civility are doomed to become one of those 47,000 obsolete words in our language.

On the bright side, there are many words that grab you by the heart. And the good news is that they are usually simple words: love, care, compassion, give, smile, laugh, and thank you (okay, that’s two words). But sometimes you need a big word for goodness. it’s hard to beat a word like “philanthropy”, but there are others, like “altruism” and “benevolence”.

“Favorable” is a good word to hear when somebody is talking about the Stock Market’s performance. “Lucky” is another positive word that I feel when I buy a lottery ticket, although the feeling has so far never resulted in an increase in my personal prosperity.

Words are an inextricable part of our life. I sometimes wonder how many words I say, or think, or write each day. So, I looked it up.

The average person knows between 20,000 and 35,000 words and speaks around 16,000 words a day. “Average” is somewhat misleading though. People who sit around at home watching the boob tube or their cell phone all day might only speak a couple thousand words in a day, while people who talk to people as part of their profession might hit 35,000 and higher.

You might know some people who can’t seem to shut up. I do. Those people are referred to as “garrulous” (add that to your vocabulary). The cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn, comes to mind. "I say, son, your lips are movin' but you ain't sayin' nothin'." For people like this, I have developed finely honed, if somewhat devious methods for disconnecting myself from their diatribes. Then there are those who we might consider as a man or woman “of few words”. I have a brother like that.

The most common word in English is "the". No surprise there. This is followed by other frequently used words like "and," "of," "to," and "a”. I can tell you from personal experience that it’s easy to get carried away looking up stuff about words. There are lists of common words, the most powerful words, the rarely used words, and the most difficult words to say in English – think Worcestershire and sesquipedalian. To be sesquipedalian is to be someone who uses a lot of big words. If you know a lot of words, big and small, you might be a lexicographer.

The takeaway here is that words are important. We should use words deliberately rather than just spew them haphazardly around other people . You’ve probably heard the phrase, “engage brain before opening mouth”. Too many people blabber on and on without putting much thought into what they’re saying or about the impact their words might be having on others. To be sure, there are plenty of people who know damn good and well what they’re saying and their words are meant to offend, anger, intimidate, or frighten people. These are the people we call “assholes”.

Last month, I wrote about freedom, touching on the responsibilities associated with freedom of speech. Because words and speech can be so powerful, we ought to put more emphasis on engaging our brain before we launch ourselves into social intercourse, especially when our emotions are driving our words. When we engage others in discussions, we should think of powerful words such as honesty, integrity, and empathy. It also helps to have a sufficiency of spontaneous articulation before engaging in the intellectual exchange of thoughts and opinions with others.

For those of you who would like to increase your vocabulary, you should read more books. As I said before, studies show that people who read regularly know more words. It’s fortunate that you know an author who occasionally uses big words in his books. One might say he’s a bit of a sesquipedalian. This is a public service message.