Organic English and the IT factor

Let's talk about English. If learning all of its many quirks and inconsistencies is not enough, it's constantly evolving. Into a better language is yet to be determined. If only we could go back and do damage control and make it easier to learn for those who didn't grow up with it. Not to mention those who are stymied by its many contradictions and crazy grammar rules. At least everything is gender-neutral. That is we don't have a male and feminine form for all of our nouns. However, I suspect that that would be a far easier thing to learn than memorizing all of our homophones, homonyms and the many pronunciation exceptions.

The most interesting changes to the Oxford dictionary since the inclusion of OMG and LOL is the introduction of because as a preposition and the word "selfie" for a photo you take of yourself. Still, my word, "procrastinatable", hasn't made the cut.

Here's the Atlantic article about the word "because" as a preposition, filled with examples. I'm making you go check it out there because ranting.

Now, this is where I launch into my pet peeve. I have long wanted a word in the English language for "it" that isn't derogatory when used for people. I know there have been some attempts in this direction, but none of them have stuck.



If you don't see the need for this new pronoun, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you call an unborn child of unknown sex? 
• How do you refer to someone whose gender is unclear without being offensive? Or what do you call someone who is agender? More about agender can be found in this recent SF Gate article.
• Wouldn't you rather have one word you can use rather than having to use he/she?

You can't just use "them" when you're referring to one person of unknown or irrelevant gender. Not if you want to be grammatically correct.


You've announced the requirements for the candidate for office. You can either keep saying he/she must this and that, be incorrect and say "they", when you're referring to one candidate, or keep saying "the candidate must" this and that.

You've just learned you will be meeting with the VP of Marketing of the company at which you are applying. Congratulations.

I ask you, later that day, if you've met him or her yet, because you haven't told me the President's gender. Or, worse still, you tell me, "No. And I don't know if it's a man or woman. His/her name is Robin."

So, do we go with heshe? That's too long. And women won't like being second any more than men would for shehe. What can we do with two letters that's not already taken and wouldn't be confused with an existing word when spoken? Ba? Ga? Va? Wa? I'm using the "ah" pronunciation of the a here. Or Zo? Vo? Gu? Xo? What's your idea?

On the other hand, can we, through use, remove the derogatory connotation from that perfectly useful pronoun? Maybe that's easier. How do we reclaim the word "it" so we can use it for humans?

Word fun: mangled, co-opted and brand new words

How many times have you seen a good sentence go bad? As often as you've seen a good word go bad? Perfectly good words are constantly co-opted as slang to mean something completely different. But it doesn't stop there. How long do you think it will be before "I suspicioned" will be correct? Ugh! Let enough people mangle or misuse a word and it becomes morphed to what they intended and the rest of us have to deal. Language has always been organic, but some of it just plain grates on me.

I still bristle about spelling the once-contraction of until ('til) as till, which was formerly ONLY a money drawer in a cash register.

I'm all for making up new words. Procrastinatable (mine), for instance, is an awesome word. But I can't say it's awesome because awesome is a prime example of one of those morphed words. In fact, it devastated the title of Awesome Lavratt, where I meant it in the literal sense. And if you go to sf/f conventions, you'll know what I mean when I say, "contastic!" And elsewhen. Another great word that grew most likely out of science fiction.

I wrote a short, funny essay years ago about writing diseases in which I coined quite a few new words and phrases. They include: diarrhea of the pen, terminal tenacity, descriptitus, starkosis and spelldentia. Feel free to read Common Diseases of Writers.

Has abfab made it yet? Other than the nickname for a British TV series? I use a lot. Does that count? I also use "warm fuzzies" as a salutation on emails and when signing my books. I'm not so sure I want that phrase used that way to get in the dictionary. Then it won't be my special signature anymore.

I'm still waiting for the just-right pronoun for a person of unknown gender. It would come in super handy (notice super?) when referring to an unborn child or a person whose appearance doesn't make its gender obvious. This is becoming an increasing problem today. What if we had a polite word to use that gave the person the opening to let us know without causing them offence?

Here Kieran McGovern (in the Oxford University Press blog) ranks his top ten "young words" to be avoided by those not-so-young. OMG, Awesome!, Dude and Whatever were among them.

I have four adult sons, by the way, and all of them answer the phone with "hey" even though they know it's me. And it's not even a completely articulated "hey". It's more of a grunt. Then one of my sons told me how he and his friends call each other names by way of telephonic greeting. After hearing some examples, I was thankful for the grunt.

I was confused by the last sentence in this CNN article about the additions to the Oxford Dictionary in the March quarterly update. Someone please tell me what the last sentence even means. Do people say "it it" or is that a typo in the article?

I'm guessing it's a typo. The next article I perused (from the Telegraph) had one in the first paragraph. Does anyone proof anymore? This one was more recent than the last, pulling from the OED's June update.

I'm done ranting, but would love for folks to jump on board with their pet peeve new words. And most definitely your favorite new ones. Come on, it will make you feel better!