Ogden Nash
American poet and humorist
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Just as bad money drives the good beyond our reach,
So has the jargon of the hippie, the huckster and the bureaucrat debased the sterling of our once lucid speech.
What's worse, it has induced the amnesia by which I am faced;
I can't recall the original phraseology which the jargon has replaced.
—Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist, What Do You Want, A Meaningful Dialogue, or a Satisfactory Talk?, 1972
Posted on April 30, 2004 at 11:45 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
He drinks his drinks in a saloon, instead of a tavern or grill,
And pronounces "know-how" "skill."
He calls poor people poor, instead of underprivileged,
Claiming that the English language is becoming overdrivileged.
He says the English language ought to get out of the nursery and leave the toys room,
So he goes to the bathroom, instead of the little boys' room.
—Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist, Long Time No See, 'Bye Now, 1949
Posted on November 15, 2000 at 11:07 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The pidgin talk the youthful use
Bypasses conversation.
I can't believe the code they choose
Is a means of communication.
Oh, to be with people over sixty
Despite their tendancy to prolixty!
—Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist, The Private Dining Room, 1936
Posted on June 4, 1999 at 9:58 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Seated one day at the dictionary I was pretty weary and also pretty ill at ease,
Because a word I had always liked turned out not to be a word at all, and suddenly I found myself among the v's.
And suddenly among the v's I came across a new word which was a word called velleity,
So the new word I found was better than the old word I lost, for which I thank my tutelary deity.
—Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1938
Posted on July 8, 1999 at 6:16 AM
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