I'm a fan of words. I love the nuances of language, and languages. Language tells us so much about cultures and individuals and history and colonialism and oppression and dominance and, thankfully, change. And language too is so much part of pronatalism, and oppresses and disadvantages those of us who are not parents. How "as a mother" is supposed to convey a degree of sanctity and superiority. How childLESS focuses on the LESS part of our lives, and not on the full part of our lives that we live when we find we can't have children. Etc.
So as a fan of words, I am a fan of those who make words accessible. I bought a great book years ago called The Meaning of Tingo, which shares words in different cultures and languages that have no equivalent translations. And I am a fan of Susie Dent, an English exicographer and etymologist. She has a Word of the Day on social media, and I love these. She introduced me to a favourite word - "scurryfunge" - which means the frenetic cleaning you do in anticipation of a visitor arriving. I'm an expert scurryfunger! In fact, scurryfunging is how my house remains clean. There aren't too many other motivations to do so!
Anyway, one of her words of the day was "ultracrepidarian." It's a 19th century word that means one who loves to give their opinion on matters they know nothing about. It's perfect for the world today. But equally, it is perfect to describe those people who think they know what it is like to be a person living a No Kidding life. Especially parents.
So now you know. If someone starts assuming that your life is free, with no responsibilities, no regrets, no "what-ifs" you can stop them in their tracks, and say, "oh, you're an ultracrepidarian!" If they start telling you that you're sad, or that you don't know love, that your life is gloom and doom, or that your life is unfulfilled just because you don't have children, you can respond with, "oh, you're another ultracrepidarian!"
Then explain what it means. And see if they get it!
Disclaimers:
1) I have not tried this, but I'd love to have the opportunity.
2) I thought it was time to have a fun post!
Oh, I love this post! And I love language and words, too :-)!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that there was a word for that particular behavior: I'm a scurryfunger as well, haha.
I might have come across the ultracrepidarian somewhere in a Swiss newspaper article already. I wonder whether people wouldn't react offended if we called them that though?
Autumn greetings from rainy Switzerland!
Yes, they probably might be. But they'd have to know what it meant first. Haha!
DeleteHa! Ultracrepidarian! What a great word.
ReplyDeleteI love words and language. You got me thinking in a lot of different directions with this post...
Well, I adore this new word and can't wait to try using it. I'm saying it out loud three times to make it mine: ultracrepidarian, ultracrepidarian, ultracrepidarian.
ReplyDeleteNow I need to go scurryfunge for some dinner guests.