Like the rest of the pandemic-trapped world, I’m at home social distancing and watching way too much HGTV. It has inspired me to launch a few home improvement projects and write this blog, which is admittedly more of a rant. Sorry. Though I think I do make some good points about using the right word and why that’s important, so please read through the rant to the end. It gets better. And thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
The problem began with me getting irritated by how many hosts on HGTV use a particular word incorrectly. Over and over again, they leaned into one word to describe what they were doing, only they didn’t use the right word. The only show I found that didn’t do this was Home Town (gotta love Erin and Ben, right?).
The word is repurpose.
To repurpose something means to adapt or use an item in a new way. To find a new purpose for it or use the item in a way not originally intended. Painting a cupboard is not repurposing it. It’s still a cupboard. Using wood to make something else is not repurposing the wood. It’s wood. It’s meant to be made into a variety of things. You can’t just say you are repurposing something when you are reusing, modifying, remodeling, adapting, redesigning or reworking it. There are so many words at our disposal, why do they insist on using the wrong word repeatedly? Do they think it sounds better?
Maybe it’s the pandemic and isolation, but this is driving me crazy. Really. I yell at the screen every time it is said. I make disparaging remarks. I cringe and threaten to turn the channel. Watching for it to happen would make a great drinking game if I were still in college. Honestly, the hosts say it that much.
Why? Why is it so hard to use the right word?
Words have context, nuance and meaning. Each one is special. Each has its own place in our language. These nuances matter to me.
When my son’s school introduced a program designed to teach children word stems, I was thrilled. Vocabulary is important and stems are a great way to introduce more complex words. It would have been great had the program had followed through. It did not. Every week my son came home with a vocabulary list with words like melancholy, languor and manifest. The problem wasn’t the words on the list, but the definitions. The vocabulary sheet defined melancholy as sad, languor as weak, and manifest as obvious. They reduced each of these rich words into one-word definitions.
The problem with that is that melancholy is a deep and pervasive sadness, not sad. Languor is an often pleasant feeling of being tired or a feeling of inertia. Manifest means clear or obvious, or showing a feeling or quality through one’s acts or appearance, or to demonstrate. They go far beyond a one-word definition.
On the surface the school’s definitions captured the core of the word, but lacked all nuance and understanding of the word. I protested. Obviously others did too because the program was scrapped the following year. It had good intentions, but didn’t go far enough to properly teach what made each of these words special.
Our language changes and evolves over time. It’s fluid. It grows. I love seeing what the Oxford English Dictionary adds each month/year to account for our changing times. What I hate is seeing words lose their specific definitions through pervasive and incorrect usage.
It has become almost commonplace to hear people say they are reticent when they clearly mean reluctant. We already have reluctant, why do we need a synonym when the word we’ve usurped has such nuance and meaning? Isn’t it far better for a person to be reticent (reluctant to speak or express feelings) than just reluctant (unwilling or hesitant)? Imagine using the word reticent in a story about a child who has been abused and trusting your readers know the proper definition. It’s the perfect word for someone afraid to speak up against an abuser. But this word is so often misused that it has almost lost its meaning.
The same thing is happening with anxious. How many times have you heard someone say they are anxious to do something good? I’m anxious to get home and see what Hillary has done to my house (yes, that’s a Love It or List It reference for you fellow HGTV fans) or anxious to go to the chocolate factory. But are they anxious or eager? Anxious means worry and unease, or nervousness. Eager means wanting to do something very much. My guess is that most people are looking forward to good things and apprehensive about potentially negative ones, hence the anxiety. But these words get confused and conflated more often than not.
As with most rants, this one doesn’t have a solution other than to get it off my chest. Though I do urge you to take care with the words you use and to be alert for those times people misuse them. Protect our language and the incredible nuances found within its words. Push back against misuse by gently (don’t be a grammar snob) correcting the person or lodging a complaint against school programs that dumb words down.
And don’t believe HGTV. Finding a new place to use something is not repurposing it.