Friday, January 21, 2011

A Couple of Words That Make Me Want To Slap People

There are more than just these, however, I get irked when people use:
--schadenfreude
--zeitgeist

I'm not too keen on the use of obscure latin in the middle of a sentence, or french inserted in an English paragraph. Usually I get over it.
But only outwardly, truth be known.
It is designed to show intelligence and higher learning, I'm sure. Not the attempt to elevate one's self through pretentious elitism. No, that is only how I view it.

That's because I know I am better than those people.

I guess there are times when a little bit of foreign contamination adds a little zip and gives what is being expressed a little more character. It can enhance the communication of a thought, I suppose. But it does so only very rarely, and almost never when the words schadenfreude or zeitgeist are bandied about. I stand firm on that. Sorry, I just don't like their use in english. That's all I have to say about that.
Posted by at

11 comments:

  1. DougJanuary 22, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    You do realize that English is a bastard language, right? It's progenitor (another Latin word gifted to us by the French) was a language that slept with every other major language on the planet :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. DorrieJanuary 22, 2011 at 12:11 PM

    those are both German words and I have wondered WHEN did they ever got to be a part of English? I noticed people using them back in the JS days already. Another one is "angst"...since when is that a "normal" English word? You do know that gesundheit and kindergarden are also German?

    Btw... in Germany we are having more and more ENGLISH words and people are beginning to get upset. City, ticket, sale, and tons more... even I don't like this trend. One politician recently officially asked that this trend stop! And I agree!

    ReplyDelete
  3. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 2:25 PM

    Angst is not pretentious. German and English are very close in their origins.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 22, 2011 at 2:39 PM

    What is a good English substitute for schadenfreude?

    fin

    ReplyDelete
  6. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 3:22 PM

    IRS

    ReplyDelete
  7. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    or epikhairekakia (greek)

    ReplyDelete
  8. FreedmlvrJanuary 22, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    Ever bother to ask yourself *WHY* you get so irritated by foreign words (and "big" ones)?

    ReplyDelete
  9. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 4:37 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. John0 JuanderlustJanuary 22, 2011 at 4:40 PM

    Did you not get a clue from the line "That's because I know I am better than those people."?
    Obviously a hint that this couldn't be entirely in earnest.

    Reading comprehension 101

    ReplyDelete
  11. DorrieJanuary 22, 2011 at 9:51 PM

    schadenfreude= malicious joy; gloat
    zeitgeist= spirit of the time (zeitgeist says it better)
    angst= fear

    sometimes a foreign word really does hit the nail on the head... it works both ways

    ReplyDelete

Can't make comments any easier, I don't think. People are having trouble--google tries to kidnap them. I'll loosen up one more thing and let's see. Please give it a try

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

About Me

My photo
Ballistic Mountain, CA, United States
Like spring on a summer's day

Followers

Blog Archive