V is for Vocabulary

9/6/2023 

For those who are new here - This year I am writing about topics, in alphabetical order, that were suggested to me by readers. Sometimes this is hard! 

IRTNOG

My cousin-in-law Dave has some powerfully thorough avocations (for fun and profit he earned a PhD in biochemistry; you will notice this in his list). This year, among other pursuits, he has been collecting words which have appeared in our culture since 1945, which was the year he also appeared in our culture.

Every month or so he has sent me an ever-expanding list of modern vocabulary words. At the end of this blogpost, I am going to include a PDF you can click in to read all the words. It’s surprisingly long and often feels like a trip back through your life.

He’s also occasionally mentions that “This will take your to IRTNOG.”  

I thought he was using some modern text abbreviation so I looked it up but it’s not a text thing. (So far, Len and I invented ‘I rarely toss noodles over grapes’ and ‘I rise to nice old grandmas’ and ‘Icebergs return to Newfoundland/Omit gravy.)

I was wrong about IRTNOG and some of you already know why. IRTNOG is a satirical short story written in the 1930’s by E.B. White.

This is White’s complete and very short story: Read here. 

Synopsis: Americans are trying to read everything published. As more and more literature and instruction manuals and newspapers and whatever are published ever faster, people are frantically reading as they try to keep up. Then Readers’ Digest shows up and that relieves the pressure until soon 70 other digests show up. Someone invents thumb-sized compendiums. This works until it is also too much. Finally, one guy invents a formula to distill everything published each day into six letters. Now people can just read the daily ersatz word. They feel relief. It wasn’t that they read so much because they wanted to garner understanding, they just didn’t want to miss what other folks knew.

The first day’s word was IRTNOG.

…

1.) I respect people who mispronounce complicated words and phrases because it often indicates someone is reading to learn. Hats off to everyone who stumbles over ‘multicultural representation’ or ‘Where’s the Defibrillator?’ or ‘methane emissions’ or ‘nouveau Beaujolais’. Or ‘that borders on heretical Christology’.

2.) A friend pointed out that in the past few years weirdly ordinary words have become “weaponized.” Woke. Christian. Gender. Patriot. Feminist. Vaccine. 

Using words to bully others is not new. Doing it upfront and out loud is, at least for most of us who have not lived in totalitarian states, threatening.

3.) Vocabulary is games. Wordle. Crossword puzzles. Connections. Password. Curiously, word games seem to protect us from dementia - until we drive ourselves crazy trying to do them. the other day I nearly cried at Wordle. 

4.) I have an ongoing list of favorite words and my list includes whisk, frosty, periwinkle, davenport, loblolly, and jazz. Do you have words that make you smile?

5.) Okay, your turn. What should IRTNOG stand for?

v_is_for_dss_vocabulary_list.pdf

I realize therapist notice oranges grow

I really think nothing of gnomes