Stuffing

I got this thing about the word "thing".  It's something, anything and everything, or nothing, about this one thing called "thing".  You see, the word "thing" is really a un-word because it has no meaning / definition / description of its own.  Go ahead and look up the word "thing" in a dictionary - it's OK, I'll wait.  See what I mean?  The dictionary tries to define "thing" by listing other words that the word thing could refer to, but there is no specific description for the word thing. Maybe you can call it a "filler" word because it's used to fill-in, or replace, another word; but by itself it's an un-word.

What "gets me" is not specifically the word "thing" itself but how, or why, it's used by its author in oral or in written word.  Next time you listen, or read, to a presentation pay attention for the injection of the word "thing".   When used, it forces you, the audience, to mentally translate / decipher / determine what word, phrase, feeling or thought the author intended to portray but instead took the easy way out and injected the "thing" in place of real words or descriptions. To me, ones who elect to replace their real intentions with the word "thing" are lazy, illiterate, or are severely verbally-challenged (to be politically correct).  In the end, they do an injustice to their work and disrespect their audience because both are deprived of the opportunity for illustrative verbalization.

An ah-ha moment: For those of you that may remember, there is one instance when the word "thing" meant "thing"!  Think back to the 1970's when Honda released it's Thing:   

Another word that falls into this category of un-words is the word "stuff" when used as a noun.  Stuff, like thing, has no meaning of its own; it's used in place of real descriptive words.  Go ahead, look this up too.  As before, I'll wait.

Are you convinced yet?  It's interesting to note that when the words "stuff" and "thing" are combined, we get the resultant word "stuffing".  Not only interesting but perhaps even ironic, that joining these two non-descriptive words actually describes a substance that is typically indescribable.  Confused?  Think back again, this time to a Thanksgiving meal which included stuffing on the menu.  Everyone knows it's called "stuffing" but what contents are used to create that stuffing are usually just described to as "stuffing".  We really don't know what's in that stuffing!  Perhaps I should take my mother's advise and never eat if I don't know what it is I am about to eat!
 
Pay attention please, I am almost done.  I only have one more thing to say about this stuff!

OK.  What is this rambling really all about?  Well, I am known to preach that "words have meanings", or at least they should have meaning.  Say what you mean and mean what you say.  If you use "thing" or "stuff" then not only does your audience not know what you really mean but you also let the audience determine what you mean which probably is not what you meant to mean.  Got it!  Well, enough of this!  If you don't like this thing I'm writing, then "stuff it"!  HA!



.