Posted by Paul Callighan on Nov 09, 2022
Rotarian Jim Buck took a critical look at the use and abuse of the English language in everyday conversation during this week’s Rotary meeting.  Buck said he is fascinated by words and has large bound dictionaries at his office and home, keeps a thesaurus readily available, and is an avid reader.  During his overseas military service, Buck said he volunteered to staff the camp’s supply room so he could have first pick of new books arriving at the base. Buck noted there are more than one-million words documented in the English language.  He said about 170,000 words are in common use with the average individual using a vocabulary of 20-30,000 words.  Buck says what bothers him is how words are misused, sometimes so frequently their real meaning gets lost.
 
Buck went through a three-page list of words and phrases he finds are often used the wrong way.  For example, he pointed out that the adverb “hopefully” is now frequently used as verb.  Another example was using “anxious” instead of “eager” (such as “They were anxious to get to the game” when the grammatically correct way is  “They were eager to get to the game” ).  Buck said generational differences are also found with the younger generation responding to a “thank you” by saying “no problem” instead of “you’re welcome” or greeting people with “Hi Guys” regardless of gender.  Although lamenting that the English language is frequently used poorly,  Jim Buck said he will still do his best to use it properly.