I’ve noticed that what were once considered obscenities are ordinary conversation
on line today. I wonder if I’m missing the boat, not sprinkling a little billingsgate
through this blog.
What I mean, for
example, is the opportunity to use a pithier word where I use “stuff.” You
hardly ever see “stuff happens” quoted on the Internet. There’s also the
adjective/adverb and sometime, when not in the gerund, interjection that's transcended
its original meaning and is now part of intercourse on line generally.
The unimaginativeness of it is depressing, especially when
you think of what’s been lost over the ages. The English had some terrific expressions.
“Zounds!” Now
there was an interjection you could get some attention with. Looking for
colorful adjectives? Try “scurvy” -- anachronous in a day when you can buy
oranges at any corner supermarket, but you're immediately established as a salty character with your audience.
“Odious” is a two-fer: the denotation is “hateful,” but the connotation adds “for a disagreeable or offensive quality,” so you have a cultivated way of saying your opponent’s program is bad and smells that way. Follow up with “fetid” or "miasmic" and the listener can’t help but envision your adversary’s plan emerging, slime-covered, from some swamp-like recess of his/her mind.
“Odious” is a two-fer: the denotation is “hateful,” but the connotation adds “for a disagreeable or offensive quality,” so you have a cultivated way of saying your opponent’s program is bad and smells that way. Follow up with “fetid” or "miasmic" and the listener can’t help but envision your adversary’s plan emerging, slime-covered, from some swamp-like recess of his/her mind.
But for pure poetry in the service of
argument -- has anyone ever equalled Oliver Cromwell’s 1650 invitation to the general
assembly of the Church of Scotland to give their decision a re-think? “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken…” Lay
that alongside “Your argument sucks” in the “comment” section of any Internet
post. No contest.
If you’re going
to comment online, maybe go to a thesaurus before you submit; get something
imaginative. Want to get snarky about someone’s physical appearance but still
sound cultured? Read Cyrano de Bergerac
for a lesson in creative ways to insult someone with too much nose.
It’s a great language; there are many ways to express a thought. My thesaurus lists something like 180 different ways to say you think something is bad, with a whole paragraph of slang terms, some of which you might not have thought of before. (And on the off chance that you’re really discussing copulation, there are almost 50 other ways to say that.)
It’s a great language; there are many ways to express a thought. My thesaurus lists something like 180 different ways to say you think something is bad, with a whole paragraph of slang terms, some of which you might not have thought of before. (And on the off chance that you’re really discussing copulation, there are almost 50 other ways to say that.)
