Gobsmacked

Have you ever found yourself just going about your day, and then you hear or read a word that makes you smile and think to yourself, “now there’s a word you don’t hear everyday?” And then endeavor to use it at the next available opportunity? 

No?  Well I do. 

I will admit I am weird.  I just love the English language.  I marvel at some of our words.  Some make me laugh, and others are beautiful to speak out loud.  But I must admit that it’s been years since I marveled at an interesting word.  I used to be a voracious reader, but have severely slacked in the last decade.  Reading was my me time, and as I have established in previous blog posts, I just didn’t carve out me time, so reading went by the wayside. 

I have found that the busier we get, the less we challenge ourselves in the course of our day by using an elevated or novel word.  We reach for the tried and true.  Kind of like reaching for your jeans (or sweats), as opposed to your little black dress. 

Lately, I’ve been listening to my children speak, and have been appalled at some of the new terms introduced into our vernacular.  My daughter’s friend recently remarked that she would take her “usjh” (verbal abbreviation for usual) when asked which ice cream flavor she wanted.  Later that day, I could hear my son in the next room yelling at his friends while playing a videogame that they were a bot (a gamer term meaning not a very good player), and I felt crushed.  Defeated.  While I don’t want my kids walking around as a Merriam Webster dictionary, I was disappointed that our spoken language had devolved into the sweatpants with the stretched out elastic waist. 

And then it happened.  I was going about my day when I heard the word gobsmacked.  That is a term I haven’t heard in years.  It tickled my fancy and made me smile.  I thought that that was a word I needed to use at least once a day; use it around my husband, my kids, their friends.  If “usjh” and “bot” can be taken up by our youth, why not resurrect a word that sounds interesting and is fun to say?  Go ahead, try it.  Use it with your kids; your friends.  I guarantee you they will smile or, at the very least, stop and look at you with a scrunched up face and a question mark.  A word can do that. 

It is time to take a stand and put on some heels and a dress- an elevated look for an elevated language.  Momma’s going out tonight.   

I am gobsmacked that you read this post until the end!