So here’s a blog from my good friend Glen McKay, in which he responds to my earlier post on bringing back old words.
http://qatarskeptic.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-defense-of-word-selfie.html
Far from being full of flapdoodle, Glen’s a smart guy… and he puts forward an interesting and solid case for why some words fall out of use.
Put simply, easier and more generation-appropriate words come into usage and replace old ones. His example was the word penultimate – which two of his former flatmates didn’t know – and which has been replaced by the basic second-to-last.
Glen also defends the word selfie which I have no problem with. That one definitely IS here to stay!
I guess I’m just an old romantic when it comes to words, Glen. To me, a quick obambulate around the market on a Sunday afternoon sounds positively ambrosial 🙂