Thursday, August 27, 2009

Word choice

DH and I lately have been discussing words and the sorts of words people choose to use when there are several appropriate words available.  We’re both Douglas Adams fan and he never used 1-2 words if 5-6 were possible. I am currently reading books by Edmund Crispin written in the 1940s & 50s and they are Very Wordy Indeed. They seem to be written on the principle of never use a two syllable word if a 4 syllable one is available.  They are common garden variety murder mysteries, not ‘literature’ btw. They are a blog post unto themselves (coming soon)

Anyway since the topic of word choice was on his mind, last night he related the following anecdote about his boss:

Boss came into DH’s office that morning and said “I’m aggravated I lost my favorite money clip. I’ve had it for years.”

DH agreed that losing a favorite item is aggravating.

Boss says “Yeah, I really liked that money clip.” then as an afterthought he adds “It had $600 in it”

So my question to you all today is…. Would ‘aggravating’ be the word you chose to describe the loss of a favorite money clip with $600 in it?  If not, what word would you use?

Catastrophic comes to my mind.

8 comments:

KrisMrsBBradley said...

I had to stop by and share with you my favorite thing to do with ginger (after you mentioned you had a piece to big to finish).

If you peel the ginger (I just rub a spoon down it, and the skin come off so easily) you can pop ginger right into the freezer, and it really stays great! Just grate it frozen right into your recipe.

I love fresh ginger, but I never need more than a tsp or so at a time - I ended up throwing out a ton until I figured out you could freeze it, lol!

SciFi Dad said...

I came in here and was like, "Woah... I thought people would leave a one word comment to this one but this woman left... wait, what the? Ginger? Huh?"

And then I was confused, nay befuddled, nay discombobulated.

But back to the original question, if I had lost $600, I would call that feeling very pissed off.

The Four Week Vegan said...

Sickened!

Unknown said...

distraught

Stacey @ Tree, Root, and Twig said...

"Devastated" would be much closer to the mark. Yikes!

Creative Junkie said...

What's the word for having your brain blown to smithereens? That would be my baseline.

Aunt Becky said...

I'd go with "stab-a-rific" personally.

Nel said...

I am pretty sure I would go with FUUUUUCCCKKKKK! Excuse the language, but it is absolutely the correct word for that situation.