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posted by davegurr on 8/18/2007 7:55 pm

New words needed

The power of a good story was well spelt out in a recent Ode magazine. In my opinion, the ability to tell the right story would be well assisted by the adoption of an improved English vocabulary. Many of us struggle under a weight of awkward words like ''environmentally sustainable'', ''pc'' , ''new age sensitive'', ''anticapitalist'' etc.....

I would like to find:

  • a word better than "eco-friendliness'' to tag behaviour, personal or industrial, that goes counter to 20th century-style ravaging of our planet's health.
  • a word better than ''antipoverty-friendliness'' to describe practical goodwill to the earth's poor; effort directed towards creating an egalitarian global economy.
  • a word better than ''antiwar-friendliness'' to tag behaviour that runs counter to personal, tribal or national aggression & armament indulgence.

Maybe the ideal words we need are already out there in other languages. Please share them with us. But anyone wishing to contemplate some new-word-sculpting could consider how comfortable the words are to speak.. Would you agree that latino or non-teutonic-sounding words, with a greater vowel-to-consonent-ratio, are more melifluous and possibly more likely to become popular?


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