Friday, November 12, 2010

Word Choices

Do we have a preoccupation with death? Since the tragic murder of my niece, Shana, I'm hypersensitive to words like "kill," "murder," "dead," or "death." And I've noticed many cliches and speech patterns where we use these words daily such as:

That project is dead in the water.
Don't kill the messenger.
He's dead wrong.
That's overkill.
The kiss of death.
Don't be a killjoy.
The saying: You can kill two birds with one stone.
The song, "Killing Me Softly" (with his words...)
You're killing me. (As in making me laugh too hard.)

There's ongoing discussion about movies and video games romanticizing death. Maybe we should take a look at the written word and our speech patterns. What do you think? Can you think of other examples?

4 comments:

  1. Just kill me now!
    Or the popular
    I'm gnnna kill you!

    BTW, as for your poll at the side. I honestly don't know what I'd do on that cruise. Probably all of the above!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, you thought of two more! It's amazing how many times we use those words so playfully. Weird.

    I'll add that response to the poll since no one has voted. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I could kill him!

    Some friends in college used to say I'll slice your throat. Not exactly the nicest thing to say, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's to die for!

    You are correct we are
    very careless with words.
    My David L. Harrison "Word"
    Poem this month is named
    GUARD YOUR TONGUE
    But we continue to make these
    unthinking statements.
    Never meaning to hurt someone.
    But words do hurt.

    ReplyDelete