Thursday, May 27, 2021

A WORD ABOUT WORDS

 

I love words!  I fell in love with them from the moment I learned to read, “Run, Dick, run!  Run, Jane, run.”  Oh, how I loved DICK AND JANE and my first grade teacher who taught me to read...Miss Roberta Champion.


I love to read words...I love to write words...I love to learn new and interesting words.  And one of my favorite parts of learning Language Arts in school was FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.  Remember:  hyperbole, similes, metaphor, and (the really weird one) onomatopoeia....and yes, I had to look up how to spell that one!!! 

 


Today, however, I learned a new one...I had never heard this word before...


PARAPROSDOKIAN

 

In case it’s new for you too, here is the definition:

 

figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected. 

 

They are often humorous and so are popular among comedians.  From what I’ve read, Winston Churchill was a huge fan and often came up with some of his own.

MAXINE is a great example...who doesn't love Maxine???




 

For your entertainment, I present just a few more...

 

*Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.

*I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.

*Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.       (so true!!)


*Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.  Wisdom is not using one in a fruit salad. 

*I’m supposed to respect my elders, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to find one.     (I’m beginning to understand this!!!) 

*If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.

 

 

Another figure of speech I have always liked are...

 

OXYMORONS

 

An oxymoron is a figure of speech which contains words that seem contradictory to one another. This incongruity can be accidental or deliberate, as in cases of humor.

 

* Of course I can keep secrets. It’s the people I tell them to that can’t keep them. - Anthony Haden-Guest

* You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap. - Dolly Parton

 


* I distinctly remember forgetting that. - Clara Barton   (I can definitely identify with this one!)

* I can resist everything but temptation. - Oscar Wilde

 

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS...oh how I love words.

In a TED presentation titled THE GIFT OF WORDS, Javed Akhtar talked about “words as magical tools that carry meaning.”  He also talked about how we seem to be losing our power to use words....often using “emojis” or abbreviations for words...

         IDK – I don’t know

         TYVM – Thank you very much

         OMG – Oh my goodness

Akhtar even suggested that we may lose some of our vocabulary altogether.

         (Words) reflect your culture, your traditions, your inheritance, your cultural wealth accumulated over generations, all of that is carried forward with words. If you cut a man off from some words, you cut him off from a culture, a history. This is exactly what is happening with us today“.

 


I love to see words, I love to hear words, I love to write words...but sadly we are losing at least to some degree our ability to communicate.  How often have you been to a restaurant recently and watched as couples sat texting on their phones rather than talking with their spouse or date or whomever they were with?  Just so sad.


I pray I never lose my love of words and that all of us never forget the power of both the spoken and written word.


WORDS HAVE POWER.

THE RIGHT WORDS CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 comments:

  1. FANTASTIC post, Cheri! You will never lose your love of words and I will never lose mine. I distinctly remember forgetting the definition of paraprosdokian but now that I have been reminded in such a refreshing way, I shall endeavor not to forget again. My favorite funny person, Yogi Berra ("Nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and "It gets late early out there"), was famous for these. And my all-time favorite paraprosdokian of his was one that my late mother had me include as the last line on the back page of the program we put together for her funeral service: "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours." Haaahahaha xoxo

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    1. Oh I love your mother's line:) And Yogi Berra is a good memory...how he came up with all those lines is a mystery to me!!!!

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  2. How can anyone 'top' Jenny's comment above!!!!!!!! -smile-

    Gentle hugs...
    😊 🔔 😊

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  3. My only wish.... That you would post more often..........................

    Please consider it.............

    Gentle hugs...
    😊 🔔 😊

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    1. Oh, thank you!!! Lately life has gotten in the way of me posting...and sometimes trying to figure out what to write about is a conundrum:)

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  4. I love words, old sayings, humorous takes on things. This post was a pleasure to read. Lots of smiles here! And no, I'd never heard of PARAPROSDOKIAN (had to copy and paste that one from your post!), but now I won't forget it. And that quote from Dolly...I've heard it before and it's so funny!!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it...we could all probably use more smiles and humor these days:)

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  5. Wonderful! I enjoyed your use of words to get a great message across to us! And I learned something new...that first big word you wrote that I won't attempt to re-spell here. LOL. Yes, I believe we are losing our ability to communicate eye to eye and face to face. It is very sad. I know I am a better communicator through writing than I am through talking. Most great writers are usually not great speakers...that's my excuse. LOL.

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    1. Pam, I love to write but also love to talk, yet when I have something really serious to "talk" to someone about I find myself more comfortable writing it.

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  6. I learn something new every day and sure learned some new words from this post:) Thanks for the WORDS lesson! Enjoy your day dear friend, HUGS!

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  7. I so enjoyed reading this post, and it was written with words, not emojis, nor abbreviations! Like you I love words, and I agree we new losing our communications skills! Thanks for sharing.

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