WORDS DEMAND RESPECT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 65, 17 March 1936, Page 10

WORDS DEMAND RESPECT

Exaggerated Adjectives

One day, during conversation at lunch in the house of a woman who was known to me only as a popular hostess, writes Rom Igindaux in “God is My Adventure,” I happened to use one of those silly adjectives such as “heaven Jy” or 4 * incredible. ’ ’ My hostess in terrupted me suddenly, am] said in -i low voice so that nobody would •her.r: •‘You should not use words that you cannot possibly mean. I am sure you know that words have a deeper mean ing in themselves than the • ~e which we thoughtlessly give then;.’’ I was impressed by her lee.cf ty; her remark was the beginning a deep friendship which was cu* s’ ort only by her death. In the few tears of ou r friendship I discovered that her own, ; i times extremely successful, way «»f getting the root of things consisted in ■ Innys trying to avoid the use of won' in their wrong sense. She never w.-vd them irreverently, but was alwavanxious to remember that a word is

both a symbol ami a centre of spiritual | power in itself. I began to watch myself and to be careful in the use of adjectives; the “most incredible” and I “heavenly” were eliminated from my vocabulary. I no longer answered invitations by saying, “I shall simply I adore” to come. I noticed that the fem in ire fashion of the exaggerated use of adjectives—and not only of adIjf etives—was not confined to the younger, frivolous set, but was equally | popular with older and more serious people. J i 'the following weeks, during which j 1 vvas beginning to treat words with | some of the respect due to them, life • betan e more real: problems appeared j -in.pier, and I seemed to see them in i their right proportions. It was as though I were becoming more honest,. The slipi shod employment of words and the use ’gerated expressions put you into an atmosphere of artificiality, making the ground on which you stand seem insecure.