Hey, stop it! “Titillate” is a perfectly fine verb meaning “to excite another, especially in a superficial, pleasurable manner.” Though it can be used in an erotic sense, that isn’t the intent of the word. But, if you want to see a group of adults collapse into a paroxysm of nervous giggling … “tittering,” if you will … use the word (with a straight face) in a sentence.
In fact, I’m not going to ask how many of you dropped in to read this because of three letters in the title. Oops … there are those three letters again … can’t we make mountains out of molehills, so to speak, when we want to?
Heck, as a professional storyteller I cannot even tell the innocuous English folktale of Tom Tit Tot, which is a variant of Rumpelstiltskin, for fear of how the little urchins in the audience will react. Heaven forbid that I should put a “titmouse” (a chickadee for Heaven’s sake!) in a story! Isn’t it a shame what we have done to our language?
So many words have become “bastardized.” No, that isn’t a naughty word either. As a verb it means “to lower in quality or character; debase” and as an adjective it can mean “deriving from more than one source or style.”
The kids keep changing the language every day and making naughty slang out of perfectly good words. I only know this because when I tell stories, they snicker at certain words. Then I know I’ve found another word that I have to drop from my meticulously obtained vocabulary. I’m also thinking that kids today don’t have extensive vocabularies!
When I was young, my grandparents told us, “don’t get your knickers in a twist.” They meant by that we shouldn’t get upset or irritated. Nowadays, folks say, “don’t get your panties in a twist” … but back then we would never say “panties” in mixed company! “Knickers,” however, was acceptable.
But, kids today don’t know what “knickers” are. If you don’t, they were long girls underwear … bloomers … underpants … the pre-cursors to panties. I used that phrase “don’t get your knickers in a twist” before a group of 5th graders and heard a collective gasp. Later I discovered that they thought I dropped the “N” bomb. Since they didn’t know the word, they heard what it sounds like.
And, speaking of the “N” word, which is NOT in my vocabulary … do you remember the flak back in 1999 when David Howard, who was an aide to the mayor of Washington D.C., talked about a “niggardly” budget? The word means “miserly,” and was recorded as early as the late 14th Century in the works of Chaucer. It’s probably Norse in orgin. But, people hear what they want to hear. That poor man had to resign because the word is phonetically similar to the “N” word! He had to apologize and resign because he had a big vocabulary!
Go figure.
This post did not start out to be a rant about vocabulary. Actually, I was going to use the word “titillate” in a story for precisely the reason I first mentioned … to make you titter. But, I went off on a tangent and realized that I had more to say about titillation. I’m still going to tell you the story (which is why this is “Part One”) but I’m curious how you feel about this subject of vocabulary.
Am I the only person who notices this problem?
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When I was young, I think the expression here was “Don’t get your knickers in a knot”, but yes, it’s now knotted panties that people refer to
It’s so true that the original meanings of words somehow gets lost because people start using them differently. I do remember that David Howard story. My opinion, I think forcing him to resign was a huge overreaction and ridiculous because, yes, that is the meaning of the word. On the other hand, the word has such a negative connotation that I do think the speaker has a responsibility to recognize that and perhaps find a substitute.
My opinion, people are becoming oversensitive and it seems to be trendy to be offended by everything. My kids attend the same high school that both my husband and I and countless thousands of others, (including Harrison Ford) attended and the mascot has always been The Blue Demons. Now for some reason, there’s some big motion to change the mascot as this is now offensive or satan worshipping or something. Ridiculous, but it seems to be the way it is now.
I know what you mean about the football mascot. Around here there are some “Indians” that might have to become “Native Americans.” Sounds like a scary team, eh?
As for the David Howard thing, he was white and I’m sure that if he had been black he could have gotten away with saying it. One definitely does have to think before opening mouth, but it’s a shame that people are “becoming oversensitive” as you say.
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