I was helping my nephew (ish nephew) do his homework yesterday and he had to write out six sentences about the moon. He did a unit about the moon and I guess they were just checking to see if the kids had learned anything. So anyhow, one of the things he wanted to write was that there was "nothing on the moon." We spent some time discussing what the word "nothing" meant. If nothing is the absence of anything, then is there really nothing? I know guys supposedly have the ability to think about "nothing," but other than that, not much can be referred to as nothing.
When we say there's "nothing" in the fridge, usually is means that there's nothing we want to eat. When there's "nothing" going on, usually it means there's nothing we want to do. So really, nothing is such a misused word. In my opinion.
In other news.... I have nothing to report. : )
2 comments:
Recently I was reading a list of overused words. Awesome was one of the words on the list, because people use it and don't even think about the true meaning. Nothing is a good example of that. Ever since reading the list, I've tried to say what I mean and use words to express my feelings instead of using awesome or amazing or cool etc. I searched "overused words" and couldn't find the article I had read, but I think this is interesting: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
Aha! So true! Honestly, sometimes I hear people talk and it's just like, "epic fail, dude." They use nothing fresh. I'm just sayin'.
Now I'm just being annoying. =) But yes, too many words are overused, while some go unused. Like insouciant. Why can't more people use that word?
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