The most powerful drug used by mankind is not crack, cocaine, valium, marijuana, heroin, or alcohol; it is the use and misuse of “words.”
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
~Rudyard Kipling
There is a hair-design place in the western suburbs of Chicago that really sucks. Suk’s Hair Design that is. I kid you not. Can you imagine commenting to a friend when she asks where you got your new “do” and you reply, “At Suk’s.”
“It Suck’s?”
“No. At Suk’s.”
Sounds like an Abbott and Costello routine. (Who’s on first).
As a retired journalist, author of nine books, and an active blogger, the meaning of words has always been very important. My eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Royer unwittingly gave me my life’s philosophy from a mnemonic-device designed to help us learn to spell.
“It’s no lie to believe!”
Two door’s down from Suks is a psychic adviser who chose for the name of her business simply, “Psychic.” Short and very to the point.
WORD: the smallest amount of something spoken or written. But then a word can be a noun, (be as good as one’s word, break one’s word, have a word with you). Verb, (he words his request in a particularly ironic way). Adjective, (a strongly worded letter of protest. That Jay is one dangerous character. “Word.”) Adverb. (keep one’s word, put words in my mouth, a man of few words).
Then there are oxymoron’s, (words which combine two contradictory things, “jumbo-shrimp,” “deafening silence,”) cliché’s, (cliche is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused) To coin a phrase, “words are a dime a dozen.”
Then there are the truly confusing use of words like portmanteau which is used broadly to mean a blend of two (or more) words into nonsensical words like Frankenword, (blending “Frankenstein” and “word”). Author Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) was a great user of portmanteau. The usage of the word ‘portmanteau’ in this sense first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s book Through the Looking-Glass (1871) in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky. Humpty Dumpty’s theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right 
explanation for all.
For instance, take the two words “fuming” and “furious.” Make up your mind that you will say both words … you will say “frumious.” ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy’… You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word. “‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’.
It can all get so confusing!
Down the street from the strip-mall is a ghetto-like apartment complex called Park Place. Which looks nothing like Park Place. In the 1940’s, they used to used the slang expression, “That’s very Park Place,” meaning; upscale, fashionable, trendy, exclusive. Today, most Americans only know the meaning of the phrase “Park Place” from the Monopoly game.
In America, we have countless subdivisions named after trees where no such trees exist or were planted after the fact, (Aspen Meadows, Pine Grove, Oak Hill) or after bodies of water that don’t exist, (Mill Creek, Mill Pond).
You can bet a subdivision named “Tall Firs” won’t have many, if any, tall fir trees left or a sub-divison named after a body of water won’t have that body of water. So why do the developers misname them? They give them a cutesy name simply to attract buyers but the name means nothing.
Today, words are thrown at us for marketing purpose’s, to manipulate us. Words are casually used and misused, but the words themselves have lost all meaning, except to humorists who catch the double-entendre, (a spoken phrase which can be understood in either of two ways, a play on words).
“A man walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for an entendre. She says, ‘Certainly sir, single or double?’ He says double and she replies, ‘OK then sir, yours is a large one.’”
(Entendre also being an alcoholic drink containing Champagne, Grenadine, Pineapple Juice, and Vodka).
Many commercials for Overstock.com feature double entendres, as an attractive woman talks about the “O” and “Big O”, which could refer to the website itself, but clearly call to mind the word “orgasm”, which is often called the “Big O.”
When the words mean nothing, Americans stop paying attention.
One only need look at the phony political process every four years making the same repeated, phony promises. Americans tune out the “words.”
The power of words create emotional appeals, fallacies, manipulations, disinformation, misdirection, propaganda, and Political Correctness, that defeat our common sense, twist our thinking and control our behavior.
In the days of the old-west, snake-oil salesman were armed only with the power of words to sell their phony products. Oils from the Chinese water snake contained none, and were instead mixtures of camphor, some form of fat (often beef), and alcohol. The unsavory reputation of people selling snake oil began to gather steam as most people who bought the stuff found no benefit from using it.
Salesmen, politicians, journalists, those in the media always get their own way, get you to agree with their point of view, give them what they want, do what they ask and buy what they are selling through their trickery of words. They use the power of words in a dishonest way. These are enormous powers, largely because they are invisible. You’ve been persuaded, manipulated, and controlled without your knowing anything about it. And written words are even more powerful since they are often accepted, uncritically, as being true.
Ever wonder why lawyers and the justice system still use “latin” for legal terms? The traps set by the legal word-mongering often leave the normally intelligent citizen dumbfounded: They don;t want the average lay person to really know what they’re talking about.
Every field has their unique “speak” or “jargon” which only those in that particular field know what the words mean. Writing that contains technical terms not commonly intelligible or talk that is considered clumsy or circumlocutory is termed “jargon”. The term is applied to the cant of a class or to the peculiar vocabulary of a particular art or science, trade or profession.
{agonal, scoop-and-run, obiter dictum, Pro bono, corpus dilecti, Code Seven, (out for lunch) phonemic awareness,Points. CMO, CLTV Ratio, CMBS, CRA, pull quote, concretable, plyboo, granny-flat. gerry-mandering, Blaxploitation}
I examined the tissue under the microscope and detected squamous epithelium with normal margins”, the doctor deposed. “The centre portion was markedly thickened and keratinization had increased. These papillary-like projections in some regions showed distinct calcification. The underlying fibrous connective-tissue stroma revealed no pathogenicity”
The Judge interjected: “In simple everyday language, Doctor, what did the plaintiff have?”
The doctor looked sheepishly at the judge and answered: “A wart”.
Journalists back in the day, of Samuel Clemens, Nelson Algren, Colonel McCormack, used to use the power of words for truth. Words create impressions, images and expectations. They build psychological connections. They influence how we think. Since thoughts determine actions, there’s a powerful connection between the words we use and the results we get.
Some of the funniest comedians, Abbott and Costello, (Who’s On First) Lucille Ball, George Carlin (Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine was central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government’s power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.) Monty Python, (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Eddie Murphy (F**k), SNL’s John Belushi/Dan Ackroyd, Johnny Carson/Jay Leno, Cheech and Chong all use the power of words” in comedy sketches to hilarious effect as do hundreds of political-cartoonists the last-century like Charles Addams (Addams family creator). “It’s so nice to have a “thing” around the house. (Thing was a hand with no body attached). Macabre, dark sense of humor.
One of my favorite song’s done by John Prine and other’s is called, Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian.
Lets talk dirty in hawaiian
Whisper in my ear
Kicka pooka mok a wa wahini
Are the words I long to hear
Lay your coconut on my tiki
What the hecka mooka mooka dear
Lets talk dirty in hawaiian
Say the words I long to hear
All of the great songwriter’s, Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, )Working at the Car-Wash Blues) Seals and Crofts, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, (Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald) Dan Fogelberg, John Prine, Steve Goodman (Lincoln Park Pirates) used words to tell a story. Some refer to them as “Balladeer’s.”
“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” ~Buddha
So …….
“Gimme gimme oka doka make a wish and wanta polka
Words I understand hey!
Aloha,
Kilburn Hall
