Sunday, May 17, 2009
Interesting
I got in a nice little debate over dinner last night about this word. IMHO, it's one of the worst adjectives you can use to characterize a thought or feeling. It's completely dependent on the user and receiver's personal definition of the word and gives little information about an opinion. For example, if I call a wine "interesting" and don't qualify it, I think it's a copout. Thoughts?
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agree. copout. must be qualified.
ReplyDelete"worst" depends on context. As a word "interesting" just means that the modified holds more interest than the common. Not that descriptive, I agree.
ReplyDeleteHowever, "interesting" can be the greatest spoken word in terms of subtle tonal inflections carrying the meaning for the word.
Basically, the word "interesting" modifies expression the same way alcohol modifies - the direction and degree depends on the person and the context.
one of the greatest spoken words that is not that descriptive and the direction and degree depend on the person and the context. i'll chew on that... :)
ReplyDeleteYour take on "interesting" is quite interesting. As I sat at the Wine Lab the other night enjoying a sumptuous 2005 Kenneth Crawford 4 Play Syrah the word interesting didn't come to mind. Yet now that I know it is a word that bugs you I might be inclined to use it in your presence. That in itself could be quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteLet's see if I can explain better.
ReplyDeleteYou think "interesting" is useless as it REQUIRES person and context to give it meaning.
I think "interesting" is rich in usefulness because of the necessity of the person and context giving it meaning.