TheByte

Choleric

I was thinking the other day about certain phrases and such. I though it was interesting how just one word or a few can evoke such strong feelings. They are just letters after all, or lines to be exact.

Just a few cliché ones for example:

RAPE

WAR

HITLER

Also how peaceful unobtrusive words, when combined with stronger words have a whole different effect:

GRAPES OF WRATH

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS


Thats me just thinking for ya...

You guys have any other examples

Rob

This is a really interesting topic Jeff ....I wish I had something clever to add right now but I don't.

But please expand on this ....I like

Choleric

well, a few more.

MAELSTROM

ENVY

ATLAS

HAMMER OF GOD

Also I always think about words too much, they become so strange the more you think about them, you know what I mean.

MikeJ

Well, I'm interested in words too. I've noticed that I spend quite a bit of time at OED.com reading about the etymology of words and different (sometimes obsolete) meanings that they have.

Choleric

PONDER

such a strange word.

Germaniac

studying journalism it's interesting to look at the use of language. I'm sure it's fairly common knowledge but coming from high school - where overwriting is all the rage - it has been quite a task to cut down on the use of adverbs and pronouns and choose a single 'strong verb' to replace them. "dawdling" as opposed to "walking slowly", for example. "butchered" as opposed to "cut into pieces".

but loaded language is incredibly powerful, as you were all mentioning.... i think racism is one area where it's particularly evident - there is only letter different in "bigger" and "ni***r" yet the latter holds so much more negative meaning...