Words

Time for some relaxing thoughts.  Words are how we generally communicate with each other. It is not an exclusive technique. You can use a smile. It costs you nothing and can have a marvellous effect when communicated to a person who happens to be ‘down in the dumps.’ That’s what’s called an idiom. Use too many and you’re called an idiot (lol). So many idioms carry strange origins or are considered somewhat archaic in the present day. As are expressions. You previously obtained a repeat of what was said, by asking: ‘I beg your pardon?’ replaced in modern times by ‘whaaat?” Many idioms give the impression of being excessive, while modern single-word usage is often dismissive.

Were people more polite to each other in the olden days? Or was more time available in daily life to indulge in the fancier style of conversation? In some contexts, especially among the rich, people were more formally polite. However,  apart from some of the ongoing political disasters, people treat each other considerably better in the present day than a couple of centuries ago when the deeds did not match the words.

It is a digression but no exaggeration when I say that, as I began to write about ‘words,’ I actually started humming a favourite song of mine that carried the title, yes, you’ve guessed it.

I was recapturing the melody of ‘Words,’ one of the finest songs of a few decades ago; and especially the version sung by the great and famous band, The Tremeloes. It is a truly memorable song, though I’ve forgotten the words (lol). The soloist is Len ‘Chip’ Hawkes, a guy so-called because, as an apprentice carpenter in his youth, he often turned up to a performance with wood chippings in his sweater. From achieving everything, Chip then produced a son, Chesney, who also became a famous Pop singer.

Then, when he got old, Chip Hawkes contracted a disease that reduced his height by 16 centimetres (six inches). Now that’s not nice. Men like Napoleon Bonaparte and Vladimir Putin went to war for having been born like that. Well, that’s not necessarily correct; I just enjoyed saying it. Nevertheless, both men drove thousands of good people to destroy the lives of thousands of other good people; and just to satisfy their own subliminal desires, probably driven by sense of stature. There is no doubt that, for very short men, there is a lifelong and perfectly understandable, fight against feeling inferior when conversing with much taller people. Women are rather less sensitive in that respect.               

Back to the theme of this article, fashion in communication has changed so much. We’ve gone from wireless (that became radio) to television, from movies  at the downtown theatre to Netflix on the home screen, and from landline to smartphone. Let’s leave the technology to one side and consider the content of those oral communications. The way we talk to each other has changed significantly (please excuse my restricted reference to the language I know well, namely English). Many expressions of today have replaced their ancient predecessors, that were perhaps archaic and excessive but, on the other hand, often poetic.

I mentioned above my failure to capture the words of the eponymous song. In the old days, I would have said – ‘I can’t for the life of me remember …’ Now, why enter that windy domain instead of simply saying ‘dunno.’ 

The answer lies in the deep enjoyment experienced in former times of splashing out an ornate sentence simply for the pleasure of doing so. The way you spoke could be more impressive than the clothes you wore. Not today, it isn’t. In modern times, that style of communication is pretty well limited to the courtroom, and you don’t want to go there unless you have to.

There is something quite charming about the words, idioms and expressions of yesteryear.  They not only often have a historical context, but also serve to introduce a delicate humour that is missing from the conversations of today. So often they included reference to animals; perhaps a function of how close they were to human life.

‘Hold your horses’ means ‘steady on.’ That goes back to the olden days when horses were the only form of transport, and dominated life. ‘Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle’ is an expression of disbelief. While ‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’ urges you not to make hasty decisions. I really believe I can recall a relative once saying to me, ‘I haven’t seen you since you were knee-high to a grasshopper,’ that being an archaic version of the Southern African, ‘long time.’

‘Don’t put the cart before the horse’ encourages a person to not place the unimportant before the important. And finally, ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,’ especially when it wants to watch ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth.’