Lost Words

By Chloe Hunt

Photo from Mia Hickey

There are so many words in the English language, we’ve completely jam-packed the dictionary with new slang and different ways to say the same thing. I still can’t help but laugh when I hear what middle schoolers are saying nowadays, how it used to be me in their shoes. Shooting off complete nonsense to my friends, because it all made perfect sense then. Words I used all the time now seem to be a lost art of sorts, a fading practice, disappearing to the place where lost things go. The fate of many trendy words is to only exist for a short while. I do think a few have continuously resurrected themselves though, or changed as a means of survival. 

I won’t list out any examples, to not only save myself from the pain but also because I don’t want to assume that everyone has stopped using certain words. That said, and fully registering my contradiction,  I do think we should own our words more, lean into the idea that some things will make us sound stupid. That they’ll fumble off the tongue. We should all sound a little stupid sometimes, it’s good for the soul. 

I feel for the words we’ve let slip through the cracks, not just slang, but all the words that used to belong to us. How hundreds of years ago, there were phrases used all the time that don’t even make a whisper now. That’s a piece of our history- bumped to make room for something new. How many words are in the dictionary anyways? How many different words does the average person use in their lifetime?

What I do think speaks for itself, is the fact that it grants us so much freedom. They’re a tool for us to use, to play with, to tear apart. I like the challenge. Of trying to tame the chaos. I love words, but I hate them. They’re so vast, I get lost. I often think to myself, that without them I’d be so lonely. No way to truly capture how I feel. So how lucky are we to, sometimes, find the right ones?