A word to the wise is sufficient – Benjamin Franklin.
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On September 24, 2018, Time Magazine reported that 300 words have been added to the Scrabble Dictionary. Among them:
"Bestie – a person who someone likes very much."
"Ew - used to express disgust."
"Frowny – showing a frown."
"OK" – thus ending 80 years* of family arguments over whether OK is a word.
Now a human being can say to another human being with a straight face, “My bestie showed a frowny and went ew.” AND, it is OK.
During his lifetime, my father (who passed away, one year ago on October 31, 2017), claimed to know every word in the dictionary.** A word he used to maximum effect was pithy (according to Mr. Merriam & Mr. Webster “having substance and point : tersely cogent. (cogent: “appealing forcibly to the mind or reason: convincing”)).
Being an engineer for Westinghouse for 39.75 years – my dad valued pithy statements. He would tell me:
“All you get out of life is what you eat.”
In his 94.71 years, he most enjoyed getting out of life: steamed crabs, porterhouse steak, coconut cake, Whitman's chocolates, vanilla ice cream, and “white stuff” (i.e. cheesecake). Amen!
His response when people asked how he was doing:
“Better than most.”
He figured in terms of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, health, and quality of life, he was better off then roughly 7 billion people.
Every day when my Dad would leave the house my mother would tell him,
“Be good.”
His response,
“Be.”
Yes, pithy.
How about you? What word describes you? Share a story!
*Scrabble was created in 1938.
**My mother often challenged my father’s assertion he knew every word in the dictionary. One day she asked him to spell Czechoslovakia. His response,
“C-H-E-C-K…”
My mother was convulsed in laughter…
