Out of Town Words

   IN THE BEGINNING -- A good guideline for writing is to remember the C formula: Clear, concise and correct equals easy reading. One good way to achieve that is to avoid what H. L. Mencken called "out of town words." You may have the vocabulary of William F. Buckley Jr., but in the words of the Irish boxing sage Pug Mahoney, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." The New York Times regularly falls victim to the "word du jour" virus, which leads to one two-dollar word appearing in several pieces on the same day. Last week, it was the word "inchoate." The Samurai Rim Man couldn't sniff out the meaning from the context, and had to look it up. (It's Latin for something in its early stages, a beginning.) So if professional users of the language have to pause to look it up, how much more of a problem will it be for the average reader? The goal is to communicate, not to overwhelm with two-dollar words.
   LOST WORDS SOCIETY -- Add "modem" to the list of words that are still around but have lost their original meaning. It's a coined word from the early days of the Internet, when a separate device was needed to modulate and demodulate the digital signal from the computer into the analog system in the telephone line. But since most communications systems are all digital now, maybe we need a new word for the connector gadget. Any suggestions? More likely we'll still use it, much as we still "dial" phone numbers, even though the rotary telephone is long gone.
   GIMMICKRY, BY CRACKY -- Computerized word processing enables us to use a wide variety of type sizes, faces, and other typographical gimmickry in an often vain effort to spice up the page. But as with multiple punctuation, such as !!!! to REALLY emphasize something IMPORTANT!!!, if you don't have anything to say, no amount of gimmickry will help. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
   GLEANINGS of an Itinerant Speller -- The word is "straitjacket," not "straightjacket." It refers to a garment with super-long sleeves, tied behind a person's back, preventing him from using his arms. The arms are thereby not "straight," but put in such "straits" as to disable the patient. Said garment was used in mental institutions years ago. Whether it's still used today ...
   IN MEMORIAM -- James J. Kilpatrick (1920-2010) and Edwin Newman (1919-2010), master advocates of clear and concise language, who encouraged the Samurai Rim Man in the early years of Editor's Revenge. Their books on language should be on every writer's reading list, along with Strunk & White, a dictionary and a thesaurus.