L.E. Caldwell
…The Inane Ramblings of a Geezerly Septuagenarian
Some of my happiest and most fulfilling time is spent writing. I love words…I like crafting them into sentences…paragraphs and stories. Aging (now in my 70s) has allowed me to find peace in writing meaningful columns and informative essays without sounding as preachy…aged experience will eclipse middle-aged folly every time.
Each morning I’m greeted with “A Word A Day” created by Anu Garg, who sends me a vocabulary offing via email. I look forward to its arrival; many words are familiar, some are less known or forgotten, while others are new and informative. We are never too old to learn…knowledge is our best ally. If you are interested, visit wordsmith.org/awad/archives.htlm to re-ceive 'A Word A Day'. It’s worth the time and effort and it is free.
New words are added to our vocabulary every year, while others fall from favor and are retired. For 2025 some of the additions are ‘nepo baby’, ‘naked quitting’, ‘gut pop’ and ‘rizz’…none of which I will be using anytime soon; I’m glad to know of their existence just incase the need should arise. I could save you the time and define each, but where is the fun in that.
And then there are the words that have fallen from fashion…it’s ongoing. Some of the more recently removed (especially from print editions are ‘hoad’, ‘snollygoster’, and the ever popular ‘frutescent’.
I look forward to seeing the latest additions and subtractions. I usually have a few suggestions of my own; when was the last time you used ‘griffonage’, ‘sybaritic’, or ‘lypophrenia’ in a sentence? Perhaps ‘griffonage’ should remain as I still have a few friends that hand write letters and their penmanship is not always legible…however I am usually able to decipher their scrawling griffonage.
Okay…here is my pitch for a word that should be removed, but not for lack of use…but over use…honestly. The use of the word honestly has skyrocketed the past several decades and has become annoying. For me anyone who uses ‘honestly’ is either stalling for time, beating around the bush or on the verge of being less than truthful.
For example: ‘I honestly don’t know why I said that’, or ‘I honestly don’t know the answer’, or ‘It honestly doesn’t matter, or I honestly believe it’s true’…my advice, just leave out honestly and remove any doubt. Save yourself and others the trouble of trying to figure out why you said that.
Just to be clear, being honest and being truthful are not the same and should not be considered interchangeable: Honestly implies intent and reflects one’s belief, while truth and being truthful is about accuracy…being factual.
It’s a slippery slope…let’s assume that Tom honestly believes that the earth is flat and he conveys that to a friend. Tom is being honest in his own belief even though the statement is false. Unless of course you are a ‘flat-earther’ and in that case we should talk.
It is just like many of our elected officials that honestly believe they are legislating in our best interests; when truthfully they are not.
What about transparency and accountability?…perhaps those seemingly less used words these days should go on the list. I suggest that our government officials find a dictionary, refresh their memory, take the appropriate action in representing their constituents and do what is best for all of us. And if they really want the shed outdated policy decisions…congress could enact legislation on term limits, aggressive campaign finance reform and the unhealthy timeless act of springing forward and falling back. Springing and falling back is never good for older people...Just saying.
Sidebar: The other day I heard a commercial touting a restaurant as having ‘good honest food’. It may well be food, but the description as good and honest is of course subjective and refers to information shaped by personal feeling, taste, opinions, or biases varying from person to person.
Wouldn’t it be just as effective to say ‘wholesome food made daily with fresh local ingredients’…I’d eat there.
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