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2001-08-03-10:03 p.m. Today in Sa-land our theme will be the rampant recent use of fictitious words. Not unlike the traits discussed here and here, this ploy is used to make oneself sound more knowledgeable and intelligent, often having the opposite effect. This plague has assaulted my delicate sensibilities so often recently that I felt some mention of it must be made. Ironically enough, I�ve found that this behavior most often occurs within my place of employment. The trucker�s daughter (you knew she had to be involved) argued with me for a good ten minutes one day about whether or not �agreeance� was a word. I suggested that she substitute �agreement� which she decided did not sound as good as her original choice of words. If other coworkers had not spoken up in �agreeance� with me, she would have sent out that piece of correspondence, with her fictitious word included, highlighting in writing her immense stupidity. This week another coworker asked me how to spell �suppositively.� I told him that wasn�t a word. Again, more argument trying to support his position. I suggested that perhaps he might want to substitute �supposedly� or �supposably.� Still more argument, but now I am being supported by other coworkers so he finally relented. Later, I overheard him telling someone on the phone to send in information so that we could get it �documentated.� I let that one go. The truly amazing part about this whole phenomenon is that they want to argue with me. I invariably offer to pull up the dictionary online to verify the veracity of their supposition. This underhanded ploy usually doesn�t diminish their conviction much, though. **Disclaimer: All characters in this diary are fictional. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, real or imagined, is purely coincidental and unintentional.** |
