Say What?

As a writer I may not always mean what I say, but I'd darned well better say what I what I mean! In order to do so, I rely on words to say what they mean.

When they don't, I get in a snit, which is what I'm in right now. The word that put me here has no synonym, is impossible to spell, ridiculous to pronounce, and means - words that sound like what they describe.

Yes,friends, I'm talking about onomatopoeia.

I suppose if I were an ancient Greek I'd say, "So what's yer problem? Da woid couldn't be more clear."

To an ancient Greek, I'm sure that's true. But what about the rest of us?

We can snicker at the irony of using onomatopoeia to mean, "...the use of words whose sounds suggest the sense...," but when we're done laughing we need to get serious. Words like buzz, whisper, babble, smooth, are an important part of creative writing; it's essential to have a word that defines them. Surely we can do better than onomatopoeia.

I'm not suggesting we lose the word, let's just change the spelling to something more contemporary like, wordsthatsoundlikewhattheymean. It would still look imposing and be difficult to spell but, when spoken aloud, its meaning would be instantly understood.

You think I'm going on about nothing? Next time you're at a dinner party with your learned friends, casually drop onomatopoeia into the conversation and see what happens.

I'm sure there will be some smarty pants who knows what it means. Ask that person to spell it. If they can, then they are probably an ancient Greek. Because I'm here to tell you, ain't nobody else gonna know what that word's tryin' to say!

The Q-Word

Do you ever experience word rage? You know, a word that gets up your nose, or bugs you so much, you want it to be outlawed? One such word for me is, quintessential. In one week I came across it four times in a single book, in a Real Estate ad, and in a description of a house plan.

It stops me in my tracks every time. I think it's clumsy, full-of-itself, and vague. It's an uncomfortable word to say aloud, similar to, "wasps nests." When it's used as the sole depiction of a setting or an object, I'm flummoxed. What is the writer trying to tell me? That it's the ultimate? Typical? Dull?

An adjective is fine if it gets the job done but one man's quintessential Tourist Mecca, might be another man's quintessential Bizarro Land. How can the reader decide which it is for him or her without a more detailed description?

After giving it a great deal of thought, I have decided that using "quintessential" as the modifier of a noun and not offering further explanation, is a covert attempt by the writer to control the readers' thoughts. The writer expects, no, demands that the reader visualize the object being described exactly the way the writer intends it to be seen. If the reader is unable to do so, then so be it. The writer knows what he or she meant, if the reader doesn't get it, that's their problem.