Don't give me words, lasting through time, give me no rhyme, show me!

Latisha LaRue (kfischer@keller.clarke.edu)
Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:16:37 -0600

A few years ago, we got cooking here on favorite words and phrasess.
Would this be a good time to construct a list of phrases, words, clauses,
etc. that we find the most worthy of detesting? Those we put on our list
of vile, slimy abberant uses of language, those we would tie a rockk to
and lob into the River Styx if only we could. I volunteer to assemble
the list. What do you say? Marcy, shall I put you down for "situate"?
Ed, you want to take "problematize"? Carl, game for "deconstructive post
modern mortem"? Who wants the h-word? (I promised myself, that like the
lottery, I will never play that word) And maybe Rev. Carl will award a
swell prize for the winning entry?

Katie Fischer

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The Margin:

August 16, 1997 at 9:58 PM
From: Eric Crump

Hi Gary. I think the 'h-word' refers to 'hegemony,' one of those words that has recently become too hip for its own good :)

July 7, 1997 at 1:58 PM
From: Gary Helton

Hi...tripped into your discussion by accident but found it interesting nonetheless. Curious what the "H word" is. Please enlighten me. Thank you.

June 10, 1997 at 12:13 PM
From: Eric Crump

Another fun thing to do (thought not as *evilly* fun) would be to list words we love. Me, right now I like "hype" and its various derivative cousins: * hype * hyperbole * hyper * hyperlative * hype-ola * hyperology (an area of study I just made up: inquiry into the workings of hype & hyperhetoric) * hyperhetoric * hiphype (_Wired_ magazine's chronic rhetorical state, which is why I love it so). Hype needs to be rehabilitated, I think. It's not a pejorative. It's just a kind of rhetoric that happens to be flourish in and be appropriate to times of rapid and dramatic change. Like now.