Word Inflation

It is well documented on this blog that I am a great fan of words. To me, words have definite and consistent meanings. But it is common these days for the value of a word or phrase to be diminished by overuse. I call this "word inflation".

At one time the acronym "ASAP" carried an air of urgency. As Soon As Possible meant just that. It coveyed a sense that it was to take precedence over almost anything else. Now people routinely use ASAP and no one really changes their schedule to accomodate the ASAP request. A few years ago I asked someone who worked for me to prepare a list of equipment needs for a project I was leading. He was to prioritize what equipment was needed right away and what would be added as the project progressed. What I got was a 9 page listing of requests with ASAP written next to each item. Just before I threw that list away I told him that when I saw ASAP next to each item, it lost any possibility of creating urgency. The overuse of ASAP rendered it meaningless.

Back in the day, digital pagers were the cutting edge technology used to keep in touch. A phone number would appear on the screen and I would begin looking for a public telephone to call the number which appeared. The most common number to appear would be the "office", of course, and we talked about a method whereby I would know if I should find the next off ramp and get to the phone right away, or if I could call back at the first regular opportunity. We decided that a message with the office phone number would mean to call next time I was near a phone. But if a 911 was added to the phone number it meant to drop everything and get to a phone. It worked just fine until two times in a day I made a mad dash to find a phone only to find that one of the guys I worked with wanted to ask about something that whas not particularly urgent. The second time this happened, I asked why he used the 911 designation for non-urgent purposes and he said that he didn't like waiting for me to call back. We stopped using the 911 shortly after that, because it had lost its "punch". Overuse had stripped it of its impact.

A phrase that is being overused these days is "a slap in the face". It is hard to read the letter to the editor section of the paper or watch man in the street interviews without this phrase popping up. It originated some time ago to identify a particularly offensive action toward a person or interest group. But now I see that anything done that someone doesn't like will be labeled "a slap in the face" to a large group such as "everyone who ever wore a military uniform". At one time, if I read the "slap in the face" term I could see why the person using it felt it necessary to use it. But now, through overuse, I get aggravated when it see it used. It sounds cranky. It makes me doubt the message of the aggrieved party. Overuse of this phrase has robbed it of its power.

Let's be careful not to be guilty of word inflation. Let's use the proper word in its proper context. After all, I have told you a million times to stop exaggerating.