Perspective from the 19^th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Washington Post columnist George Will, a wordsmith himself, wrote recently about words he hates.

His work appeared under this headline:  “FIVE WORDS THAT TODAY ARE GRATINGLY MISAPPLIED OR WORN OUT.”

Here is how Will started his column:

“’When we Americans are done with the English language,’ wrote Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936), ‘it will look as if it had been run over by a musical comedy.’”

Going on, Will cites five words he hates, as follows:

• The fifth-most misused word in what remains of the tattered language is “massive.” It is an adjective applied to anything big, even if the thing has no mass.  There cannot be a massive increase in consumer confidence.  Similarly, it would be wrong to say there is massive illiteracy in many uses of “massive.”
• The fourth-most shopworn word is “unique.” It is applied to any development that has happened since the person misusing “unique” was in high school. As in, “There is unique polarization in America today,” a judgment that cannot survive even a cursory reading about the 1850s.
• The third-most gratingly misapplied word is “only,” but only in the phrase “one of the only.” As in, Mickey Mantle is one of the only switch hitters in the Hall of Fame.  One of the only is a wordy way of avoiding “few.”
• The second-most worn-out word in contemporary discourse is “iconic.” This adjective is, it seems, applicable to anything or anyone well-known in a way different from the way anything or anyone else has become well-known.
• Today’s most promiscuously used word is “vibe.” It probably is used so often by so many because trying to decipher its meaning is like trying to nail applesauce to smoke.  Having no fixed meaning, “vibe” cannot be used incorrectly. So, it resembles the phrase “social justice,” which includes a noun and a modifier that does not intelligibly modify the noun.

I agree with what Will wrote.  But, to his list, I add this, one of my many language biases:  I hate words that end with the letters, “ize” or letters that carry similar sounds, such as “yz.”

Such as prioritize.  Why not just say such words as “what’s most important?”

Or, incentivize.  Why not just “incent?”

Or, then this word one my business partners used that grated on my ears for years, with all due respect to my friend and business colleague – “catalyze.” 

What does that mean?  I suppose it could be conveying something like – “those advocating for passage should be getting their act together soon.”

More words?  Yes.  But they get across the point better than “catalyze.”

And, I add this:  I hate nouns that are used as verbs.  Consider “helm.”  It is a noun, but is often used, including in top media outlets, as a verb, as “he helmed that organization.”  No.  He led it.

Or, consider one of my favorite words “golf.”  You do not “golf” your ball.  You hit your ball.  I know this because golf is my favorite sport.

Some readers of this blog could say, “who cares?”

Yes, but, to me, purity of language is a solid quest.

I am still on it.  I fall short from time to time, but the quest prevails.