More About Words

I attended a meeting today for one of my volunteer groups. We had an interesting discussion about the differences between offering suggestions and giving advice. One of the things we noted was the importance of offering choices that a person could pick from.

One problem we noted was our reaction to different words. For example: "You may want to..." is easier to take than "You should...". Should is a word to be avoided because it implies that you know what's best for the other person. It is a dangerous word. I envision the word 'should' as a shark. I like to say "Don't feed the Should Shark" - ie: don't give a person a reason to dismiss what you have to say.

Sometimes we use inappropriate words because we are lazy. Many people are not consciously being rude when they swear. They have just gotten into the habit of using the same words to express ideas.

Sometimes we use inappropriate words because we feel we don't know what to say.

I was thinking of all of this when I visited Chapters after the meeting. I looked at language and grammar books. 'Webster's New World Vocabulary of Success' looked interesting and I may buy it. I also found 'Word Spy' - a book based on the website I mentioned in a previous post. It also looks interesting.

I find words fascinating and like to read books about language and linguistics. I have a book called 'Book of Roots: A Full Study of Our Families of Words' by Duane Beeler. It lists words by their Latin/Greek roots. I use it to brush up on my vocabulary every so often. I think it is out of print.

The only magazine about words that I have seen is Verbatim. I read a couple of issues when it was being sold at Munro's. I found it interesting but sometimes the articles went into too much detail for my tastes.

Learning about words is fun and educational. You can play word games and enrich your vocabulary. By doing these things you become a more confident communicator and less likely to sound boorish. I should know: I can even say 'antidisestablishmentarianism' while drunk.