2001-08-13 - 23:39 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Word For It

I like to thumb through my dictionary and am a subscriber to several, "Word Of The Day," type online thingies. I have come to the conclusion that, no matter what - thing, person, event and or method - in the word bible there is truly a word for it. If one had access to the OED I suppose that one could find words for the words that define words.

Then there are the specialized words of different professions to add to the menu of the Tower of Babel.

I don't claim to be a great expert about words but I have noticed a lot of the words on the daily lists and a lot of the words I see while looking through my dictionary are words that haven't been seen by me, or heard by me -- ever.

Occasionally when I am looking into esoteric works of one kind or another some of these words are encountered. Of course my Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary is a great help on terms of the Medical world. Also in my bookmarks are several sites on prescription drugs where interesting things can be found out. Another valuable tool is something that gives the technical name of a medication and then lists the various trade names used on the over the counter medications containing all or a major part of that particular drug.

I am though, often Mr. Malaprop and inclined to misuse words or use words to others that they don't understand. Just because I have swallowed pages of different dictionaries doesn't mean that I am adequately doing a good job at understandable communication. A good sign when someone is suffering the complicated, convoluted spewings of an old man is their glazed eyes, their timed uh huh's and the oh, yeah bits.

Really makes me want to bite my tongue because I feel that the object of language and the use of words is to communicate with others and using words unfamiliar to the person or persons being talked to I think kills most real communication. I don't think most people will ask more than one question about meaning and then go into the vacant stare mode after that, grunting occasionally and nodding their head.

So, what am I doing, am I trying to impress others with my knowlege and grasp of the means of communication or am I actually trying to communicate understandably ? Makes me slow down a bit and choose my words more carefully. That is if my brain is in gear at all.

Whether it is understood or not, there's a Word For It . . . . . .

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