There are many lazy words in English. I try to avoid them in my writing, and the few that slip through are usually deleted in a second draft. What do I mean by lazy words? Words that aren’t missed when taken out of a sentence. I just used the most common one: that. Necessary at times, but mostly just plain lazy.
This morning, I was thinking of how we name items. For example, I have a new cordless leaf blower. I also have other cordless items such as a drill, saw, weed eater, and chain saw. This requires numerous battery chargers that all look pretty much the same, so I label them. I got out my trusty cordless label maker and created a label for the leaf blower charger. As I typed the words leaf blower, I realized there are so many things that don’t have proper names. Instead of coming up with something innovative, we just call them what they do. Have we become lazy when it comes to naming things? Are the days of giving things actual names such as table, rocket, chesterfield, desk or tennis racquet over? Did the decline in creative names begin with cupboard? Is it because it would be too cumbersome to call a tennis racquet a tennis ball hitter? Is it lack of imagination that we can’t come up with something more innovative than dishwasher or vacuum cleaner or even label maker? I personally don’t care for racquet because it’s a hard one to type, but you can’t deny it’s a neat word. I think our language is enhanced by new words. I’d love to be struck with inspiration for a better name than leaf blower, but until it does, I’ll just call it my leaf blower.
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