I'm sure most of you are aware of this, but at every year-end, Lake Superior State University publishes a list of ten words people have used or misused completely to death. Therefore, the University bans them.
(This year, for the first time, the list contains words I've never heard. I'm glad, because that means I no longer have my finger on the pulse of popular culture. Maybe now I can just walk away and let it die.)
One of the common words this year is "amazing." Everything people talk about, from omelets to garden soil, is just amazing. "Occupy," of course, made the list, which is a mercy.
I'm thrilled that "Man Cave" is banned. The term implies that men are subterranean peabrains who loiter in a hole with their odds and ends, and none of the men I know behave like that.
Today, though, my second-grade son coined a term that should be used liberally, worldwide. We were discussing adjectives, and I asked him to think of something he could describe with adjectives. He wasn't thrilled about the exercise, but at my urging he chose to write about a dragon.
Scaly, he wrote, then black, mad, smoky, scary, etc. He started getting tired of adjectives.
"One more," I urged, "What about an adjective for how he smells?"
"Bad," he offered.
"'Bad' is boring," I said, handing him the thesaurus, "Look up bad and find a better word." He's handy with a dictionary, so we found bad.
"Look!" I said, pointing at a bunch of synonyms, "Dreadful, horrid, horrible, putrid -"
"Great!," he said, slapping the book shut. He scribbled his last word on the paper and ran from the room. I peeked at the paper.
Hortrid.
As in...Determined not to hurt Aunt Mabel's feelings, little Jimmy swallowed whole forkfuls of her hortrid casserole, all the while breathing through his mouth.
Or, "Open the window. The dog just had hortrid gas."
