Columnist Dan Abernathy.

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The overuse of words is making them lose the impact of their meaning. Saying certain words has become part of belonging with an adopted style rather than substance, meaning or truth. Phrases like “I love you,” “love and light” and vastly the F-word, with all its additional add-ons, have lost their impactful meanings. They have departed from any meaningful honesty and truth.

It’s called semantic saturation, a psychological phenomenon, in which repetition causes a word or phrase to lose meaning for the listener. They then perceive the speech as repetitive meaningless sounds. The same phenomenon also happens with written words.

Words become less meaningful as a function of repetition because our brains translate words into ideas. When a word is used time after time, over and over, the brain focuses on the sound of the word and not the meaning. When the truth and meaning of the word or phrase are lost, what is being said means nothing.

It now seems as if it does not matter where or who you are with. Swearing in public is part of our new norm. Previously taboo words that in the past would get you the threat of a bar of soap, are now perceived as less offensive. The F-word in particular has become usable in just about any situation. Through a process called delexification, an expansion of a word’s function, the original meaning of the word is lost.

This number one swear word is the most used and the most common one. English-speaking or not, it’s widely used in every country. Literally the word means “the act of sexual intercourse,” but globally, it’s used to express anger and disgust, sometimes surprise and even amazement.

Though the word can still be very hurtful, offensive and disrespectful it’s still common in conversations and certain situations. In the informal exchange of thoughts and information, it can serve as a comic relief, a colorful method of expressing frustration, surprise, astonishment and friendly exclamation among many other things. This word is indeed a delexification and has fallen from its original meaning.

Before the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French anticipated victory over the English, and proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger, it would be impossible to draw the English longbow, therefore making it impossible for the archers to fight in the future.

The famous English longbow was made of the native Yew tree. The act of drawing the longbow was known as “plucking the Yew.”

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English delivered a major upset and they began mocking the French by waving their middle finger at the defeated French yelling, “See, we can still pluck yew.” These are the words that were originally used with the one-finger salute.

Also, it’s because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture became known as, “giving the bird.”

English is also one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, meaning that there is a long list of countries that have added their own unique words to the language. English is an amazing amalgamation of several languages and has its roots in a mixture of Latin, French, German and Danish. As expected with a compound language that has gone through such a complicated evolution, there are a lot of strange words in the English language.

Perhaps we could battle the use of off-colored words if we brought back the use of some of the good, but weird words of the past. Such as flabbergasted, which I hope you are not experiencing from the previously written words in this column.

Being “flabbergasted” is being utterly astonished; to be overwhelmed with intense shock, surprise or wonder; to be dumbfounded at what you are reading.

“Discombobulate” was invented in the early- to mid-1800s as part of a fad popular among educated high-society types who made up faux words by compiling Latin prefixes, roots and other non-Latin components into silly-sounding combinations. Discombobulate itself is used to mean confused or disoriented, but originally meant to be embarrassed and upset, not mentally together and in disarray.

“Cattywampus,” which originated in the Colonial United States, is still commonly used in the deep South. It means something is askew or something isn’t directly across from something.

“Whatchamacallit,” “thingamajig,” “thingamabob,” “doohickey,” “doodad” and “gizmo” are used to refer to gadgets or parts of things that might not even have a commonly known name. Mostly though, they are informal words for an object whose name you don’t know, have forgotten or never really knew.

The first recorded uses of “lollygag” come from around the 1860s. It is considered an Americanism, meaning the word likely originated in and is mostly used in the United States. To lollygag is to be informal, to fool around, dawdle or waste time.

The origin of the term “nincompoop” is officially listed as uncertain, despite its similarity to a Latin legal phrase non compos mentis, meaning  “insane, mentally incompetent,” circa 1600. However, the connection is denied by etymologists, a person who studies the origin and history of words. They perhaps say that it is a load of hogwash, something that is nonsense. A foolish or stupid person is nincompoop, a byword for slow-wittedness.

This all could be nothing but poppycock. Just empty talk or writing filled with nonsense and gibberish. Gobbledygook is insignificant nonsense made unintelligible by excessive use of abstruse technical terms that are meaningless.

As all this seems difficult and means nothing to understand, skittish and timid, I think it’s time for me to skedaddle, which is from the Old Norse origin, to run off in fright. - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.