A selection of poets at the Ledbury Festival were asked, ‘what word do you hate and why?’ Their answers included ‘pulchritude’, from Philip Wells; ‘redacted’ from Geraldine Monk and ‘appal’ from Paul Batchelor, who explained that he can’t bear to hear his own name within other words. At Media Mentor, our least favourite words include ‘flesh’, ‘claustrophobic’ and, er, ‘Motherwell-nil’.
Words can have a tremendous effect on people and, believe it or not, come in and out of fashion. The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words which are currently in use – as well as a massive 47,156 words which are classed as ‘obsolete’. In our office, hearing terms like ‘blue sky thinking’, ‘stakeholder’ and ‘we are delighted…’ in the news makes us shudder. They are full of negative connotations – these are phrases that seem false, meaningless and insincere. If you get the opportunity to promote your company then don’t waste it! When you are trying to get your message across you should think as much about the words that you are using as about what you are trying to say.
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