Occasionally I come across a word or phrase that people will insist on using incessantly despite the complete inappropriate setting for which the word is used.  The biggest issue I have with this is that there is no reason to repeatedly use  the same word over and over again in any situation you think it sounds good especially considering the incredible breadth and depth of the English language.

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 218,632 separate entries along with about 9,500 derivative words added as sub-entries.  This does not take into account multiple senses for the same word (the entry for set alone has 47 different senses).  If senses were included than the number of words in the English language would probably approach three quarters of a million.

With all those options at ones disposal why would anyone want to limit themselves?

The current word of the day is “epic.”  As in, “That party was so epic,” or, “That dress your wearing is epic,” or when saying goodbye, “Stay epic.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love the word epic.  It conjures images of battles lasting decades, heroes who can literally carry the world on their back, heroines who would put Angelina Jolie to shame, and monsters barely within the realm of imagination.  Your dress, on the other hand, does not inspire this in me no matter how flattering it is.

Epic has the following meanings:

–adjective Also, ep·i·cal.

1.	noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style: Homer’s Iliad is an epic poem.

2.	resembling or suggesting such poetry: an epic novel on the founding of the country.

3.	heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war.

4.	of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions.

–noun

5.	an epic poem.

6.	epic poetry.

7.	any composition resembling an epic.

8.	something worthy to form the subject of an epic: The defense of the Alamo is an American epic.

9.	(initial capital letter) Also called Old Ionic. the Greek dialect represented in the Iliad and the Odyssey,apparently Aeolic modified by Ionic.

 

And so, as you can see, although your dress is really, really nice it is by no means epic.  And I’m not even sure what “stay epic” even really means.  Do you want me to stay in some sort of poem form?  Stay impressively great?  That’s a tall order and I’ll try but you’ve really put me under a lot of pressure to perform.  Or do you want me to stay in Old Ionic form?  Because I don’t even know what that is.

I understand that like all fads of language, this too shall pass and no amount of my soapbox speeches is going to speed up the process.  So what I’ve decided to do is to create my own version of epic; Homeric.  As in, “Stay Homeric” or, “That dress is really Homeric” (especially if it resembles a toga), or, “That party was so Homeric” (but only if it was a bunch of people sitting around reciting incredibly long, lyrical poems to each other.

So far it hasn’t really caught on but I’m optimistic and so until next time,

Stay Homeric

~kbshea