Agree/disagree

[crankyisgood]

Random (not really) article: Part of the joy and pleasure of English is its boundless creativity: I can describe a new machine as bicyclish, I can say that I'm vitamining myself to stave off a cold, I can complain that someone is the smilingest person I've ever seen, and I can decide, out of the blue, that fetch is now the word I want to use to

Comments

[anonymous]

I'd be crestfallen to receive a public shaming from William Safire. And honestly, I don't hear people say, "I know it's not a real word" very often. Mostly I just hear people blithely spouting errors without knowing it. My husband makes up new words constantly; he just doesn't know he's doing it until I laugh at him. :D

-Sarah (bluegarter)

[mizrobot]

I think playfulness in language can be lovely but I hate it when a made-up word becomes part of corporate- or government-speak. To me you get more license to do that stuff in a poem than you do in, say, a Powerpoint presentation. I can't really explain why though. Maybe it's intent--a person who says something is "bicyclish" knows they are being cheeky while someone who says "impactful" might think they are using a real word.

I strongly disagree with this statement at the end of the article, though: "A far better (and dare I say, funner) technique is to jump in with both feet and use whatever word strikes your fancy." That's taking it a bit far. Language doesn't work if you can use whatever word you want!