What we need is a good universal swearword.Someone invented WAXYQUEZ to do the job. A tad difficult to pronounce, but it is composed of a few letters that aren’t used frequently: Q. W.X.Y and Z. It was fabricated by Paul Dickson, a wordsmith with high credentials who rambles on about the American language, baseball and 20th century history. He saw it as a good version of the five letters banned from Esperanto, an artificial auxiliary language, which failed to become universally popular. Esperanto was invented in 1887 as a means of making international communication easier. It is based on the root forms of certain words common to the major European languages. The newly created language’s name translates “one who hopes.” It was a good idea but it didn’t catch on. Neither did the all-purpose cuss word.
Some words do catch on immediately. Nothing would ever get done if it were not for verbs. Look at any sentence.A mere collection of pretty words until a verb comes along to tell it which way to go.
Train yourself to see humor? Yes, I think you can. Turn things upside down. Ask yourself what would happen if things were the other way ‘round.
“English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street.” Wrote E.B. White, a man who knew quite a bit about words and crossing city streets. Just look at some of the stuff he and William Strunk give us in that handy, dandy Elements of Style reference.
There’s always some wise guy who has a funnier way of saying something than the rest of us might. You know, like the aspiring politico who quoted Rose King, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. And that is sufficient.” Advertisement writers, somewhat related to those political wise guys, use a great little tag to pinpoint a target audience for special products and prices. One tag name that annoys the heck out of a great many mature consumers is being called “Senior Citizens.” Could those copywriters be a tad more imaginative? Wouldn’t this audience merit being called a bunch of Vintage Persons? They might prefer to be linked with fine wine, instead of a wing at the hospital. Merchants are fond of using words that stand out amid the advertising clutter and disharmony. There are countless made-up names for products, like Kodak, Xerox, and Q-Tip, not to mention advertising slogans proclaiming that Cocoa Krispies cereal is “cocolossal,” Mr. Salty pretzels are “crisplier” and 7Up has been the “uncola.”
What the heck! Say things the way they sound best to you, don’t you think that’s OK ?


