I love words. I love learning new ones, and I can't remember discarding any old ones.
But it is time to do just that. There is one word that absolutely has to be purged from all vocabularies and dictionaries It is obsolete and literally has neither value nore meaning any longer.
What word? Well, of course you know. Taboo. There are none any more. Haven't you noticed?
Just think. What hasn't been said on any of the prime time reality shows during the past five or ten years. Imagine reading the script for THE HOUSEWIVES OF NEW JERSEY aloud. Would you dare? Yet it is watched weekly with high ratings. Certainly, there are no taboos for this cast.
Can you imagine reciting aloud the lyrics to any Hip Hop recordings? Yet in yesteryear, some lovely poetry was set to music. And read aloud in classrooms. I doubt if this is possible today. Perhaps I am wrong. Yet I know the dreaded F word, now combined with an "ing" ending seems to be popping up more and more in celebrity quotations, without any apparent disapproval. Seemingly, it is the adjective du jour.
How about this week's news stories and headlines concerning one of New York Mayoral candidates. We won't even mention the online pictures. Just the stories validate eliminating taboo from the American vocabulary. Without any doubt whatsoever, the word is no longer valid.
There are two more words that could possibly be eliminated from a new edition of the dictionary.......good and bad. They also appear to becoming obsolete, possibly replaced by healthy and sick or ill.
I viewed a mesmerizing documentary on TV this week. It recorded events that occurred after an indescribable home invasion in CT. Two beautiful young girls were literally incinerated deliberately by their attackers. I may be incorrect, but I don't recall the word bad being used at all. I did hear disturbed and troubled. And I don't recall the victim's Dad being described as good, but I do believe the term vindictive was applied at one point. So I think maybe good and bad, alphabetically of course, could be purged along with taboo.
Perhaps we could begin a word exchange similar to a Diabetes Diet. Quite a few words could be exchanged, i.e., fat or thin (no longer appropriate from a P.C. point of view) for robust and svelte. Oh, there are so many opportunities in this category. But let's just start, first with taboo, and then move forward to good and bad.
There is certainly a marvelous career opportunity available for anyone eager to take on the challenge of writing a new dictionary. It is definitely time, and of course, a Thesarus could follow.
