I’m sure you’ve heard that famous quote attributed to Sigmund Freud, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I don’t know the context of the quote, in fact I’ve seen suggestions that it isn’t even a legitimate Freud quote.
But as writers we really need to take it seriously, whether writing about cigars or Mexican freight wagons used on the Santa Fe Trail. (I’ve lost my research notes, but I once did some study on the various types of freight wagons used along that famous trade route by Mexican and “anglo” traders during the 1820s and ’30s.) Whether we’re writing fiction or non-fiction, we need to be as accurate as possible in our writing.
Of course, fiction writers have an advantage here — if we absolutely cannot achieve accuracy, we can make it up. But we cannot effectively make up anything unless we know enough to achieve “truthiness” or believability in what we’ve made up. Readers will quickly lose interest in your writing if it sounds odd or off the mark from what they know about the subject.
Strive for accuracy. Take time to research what you’re writing, or at least carefully plan out what you’re making up if it’s fiction, and achieve believability.
Are some words we have in our toolbox as writers really “unusable”? Why are some words considered to be taboo or maybe reserved for “mature” audiences?
There really are no fixed answers to those and similar questions about word usage. From one culture to another, from one time to another, words fall into and rise out of that linguistic “black hole” we call profanity and/or obscenity. There are no protective goggles or helmets, no safety products you can use to surround yourself, your writing vocabulary, or your readers so that some words will no longer be dangerous or taboo.
Why do we surround words with such limitations. They’re “only” words, right? Simply shapes on a page or computer screen, with no actual power to leap out and hurt us.
Of course that’s true, but that’s simply not the whole picture. Words are granted power to help or harm us based on a world of social/cultural/linquistic powers we give them. This goes way beyond the simple distinctions we make between the definition of a word and the connotation of a word. It gets deep into why we think and behave the way we do as a society, and how that thinking and behavior is invested in the words we use.
So be very careful when you write. Be aware of the way you choose words based not only on definition, but especially on their social/cultural context. Once you know something of that, you are free to use the power of words to communicate, to help, even to offend and hurt — all of which sometimes fall to us as writers.
I’ve always been fascinated by word origins and meanings. The formal study of that is called “etymology,” or study of the history and evolution of words. It’s always been fun for me to explore words, how we use them and why they are used one way and not another. I generally love to read mystery and suspense novels, and to me etymology is sort of like mystery or suspense writing brought down to the word level.
I was looking at some footwear online recently, and came across “UGG Classic Tall” boots. I’ve never owned a pair of UGG boots, though I’ve seen some I’d like to have, and I’ve always wondered about the name. A bit of Googling tells me that “UGG,” before it became a trademarked brand name, simply referred to a type of Australian boot made from sheepskins. It may, one source said, have evolved from the word “ugly,” since well-worn sheepskin boots generally weren’t thought of as attractive or stylish.
When I thought about “UGG” being derived from “ugly,” I automatically asked myself, “So why does the word ‘tony’ mean elegant or high-classed or special?” (That’s just the sort of mind I have: I’ve always wondered about “tony” used that way.) It turns out that “tony” comes from the American English slang expression “high-toned,” and dates back to writings in 1877. I also discovered that “tony” referred to a particular reddish-brown fashion color that was popular in the U.S. in the 1920s.
See? You can find out all sorts of fun things about words, their origin and meaning, if you study etymology. I recommend the Online Etymology Dictionary as a convenient starting point. (No, I haven’t got a ready link for it. Google it for yourself. And when you get there, just for fun look up the term “Google.”)
