When Do You Reckon?

This is a posting that I am going to add to as different words occur to me. See, lately I've been contemplating the fact that we seem to be losing words and misusing others (For example people can often be heard saying they are 'anxious' to do something when in fact they mean 'eager'). But that will be for another time.

RECKON: I occasionally use the word "reckon". Do you reckon?" I might ask. "I reckon we should do that" I might offer. This makes my wife nuts. She thinks this makes me totally hillbilly. She'll always respond with "I dunno, but y'all shore makes me feel purty!" I don't know why we are losing the word 'reckon'. It seems perfectly logical to me and sometimes seems like the only appropriate word for the situation. I'd like to think that I am just trying to perserve the language, but I acknowlege that it may be a case of too much Andy Griffith Show.

SLEET: Another thing that makes me crazy is people saying this stupid phrase "Freezing Rain". Hey, folks we have a word for that. It's called "sleet". This begs the question: When did 'sleet' fall out of favor? Why do people opt for the more bulky 'freezing rain'? Now I know there are those morons out there that will say "Hey, Freezing Rain and "Sleet" are two different things." Oh, really Frank Sleighmaker? Not according to the dictionary. It's sleet. And no, there's no such thing as 'black ice'. There's clear ice on black things.

CRESTFALLEN: When's the last time you were crestfallen? How would you know if you were crestfallen, as opposed to just say, blue. I suppose the "freezing rain' people would prefer the bulkier "down in the dumps." But sometimes I feel downright crestfallen. I can't explain it, I just am. So try to be crestfallen this week. It really feels different. And it'll make you want to save the word.

GAY: The problem with homosexuals having some sort of inferiority complex which does not allow them to embrace the perfectly good word 'homosexual' is that they decided to steal another word from the language, and that word they decided (They must have - I didn't get a vote!) is GAY. Now this is truly too bad, for many reasons, but mostly because we don't have any other word in the lexicon that means exactly what gay means. But we have many words that mean the same thing as Fabulous. So fellas, have a "Fabulous lifestyle" and go to "Fabulous nightclubs" and let us have 'gay' back.

ASTONISH: 'Awesome' is so over worked, that it is losing its potency. Most people blurt 'Awesome!' when they are actually astonished. These are the same people that say they are 'anxious' to do something, when they really mean 'eager'. But I suppose exclaiming "Astonishing!" would draw sidelong glances. Too bad. Astonish is a good word and is too often neglected.