Wordplay Wednesday™ April 20, 2016 – LAITY not dumb

You are a layperson in something …

Try as we might, we humans are not perfect nor expert in every subject or profession. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were?

 

We wouldn’t need to call the plumber, pay big bucks to the auto mechanic, or whine to our tech guy when the &*%$#! computer graces us with a blank screen.

Nope, we could do it all by ourselves if we were just that smart. However, we are not. Some geniuses get closer to perfection than most of us, but know-it-alls often can’t master a can opener.

That’s also how I feel when it comes to politics. Unless you’re firmly entrenched in its wretched depths, you are a used, abused, confused member of the laity … join the crowd.

LAITY (lāʹi tē) n.– 1) all the people not included among the clergy; laymen collectively; 2) all the people not belonging to a given profession. [WW #56]

Laity, once considered the “silent majority,” were dealt with by those “in the know” as they would an ignorant child. Generally ignored and summarily dismissed with a wave of an arrogant hand.

This year, however, it is quite apparent that the silent majority is tired of standing in a corner, waiting for a few scraps of dignity to be thrown their way. The laity of American politics is silent no more. (But there is more ...)

Wordplay Wednesday™ July 8, 2015 – CARK: Worry not

Worry not lexicographers … it’s all in how you say it!

Do you wonder why certain words lose popular favor and fall into the “Archaic” category?

Language is mutable and transient by decades, fads, cultures, and eras. Sigh. Nothing ever stays the same. So, what’s changed in your vocabulary?

You're not thinking fourth dimensionally!

Is today’s language making you long for a back to the future trip? There’s a word for that …

Ah, don’t CARK your pretty little head about it … yep, this week’s word is rarely used. Even dear ol’ Webster calls it archaic.

CARK (kärk) – (archaic; vt., vi.) to worry or be worried; n. distress; anxiety. [Worry not!]

Why do archaic words continue to hang out in current dictionaries, taking up space? Good question – Mr. Webster, are you reading this?

For obvious reasons, Noah Webster is one of my heroes. Not only was he the epitome of lexicographers, but he was considered a fringe Founding Father of the United States. (Appropriate for one of this month’s Wordplay Wednesday entries, right?)

A teacher following the American Revolution, Webster abhorred how outdated the school system had become. Children still read primers from England, with books’ text “… often pledging their allegiance to King George. Webster believed that Americans should learn from American books, so in 1783, he wrote his own textbook: A Grammatical Institute of the English Language.” Do you know it by its nickname? ...