Please Stop Saying That Word
Dec 07, 2010
Years ago, when he was an intern here, Christopher Arigo (author of Lit interim and In the archives) came up with a list of his most disliked words used in poems. We don’t have that list anymore, but I clearly remember two words from it: gossamer and diaphanous. It’s no longer possible for me to see these words and take them seriously. Fortunately, I don’t see them that often. Apparently, though, making lists of disliked words is not an altogether uncommon thing to do. I like this list. And this is a fun one related to food writing. But it’s missing my number one most disliked word: eatery. Please stop using it.
My own list of most disliked poetry words currently includes these two beauts: “scree” and “scrim”. I don’t know who started this fad for screes and scrims, but it must stop. Now.
My wife just walked into the room and asked me to add “thrum” to my screed against “scree” and “scrim”.