Incorrect words that are good
As a partner to yesterday's Words that are not right here are some words that are not officially right but feel correct.
I'm extremely fond of words that are often labelled 'archaic' in the dictionary. Bring back the old fashioned definitions of awesome and terrific.
I use 'handsome' regardless of gender, which people sometimes correct me on. First of all, more female-specific terms have other connotations that are less palatable - if I were in such a position I'd much rather be called handsome than pretty. Second of all, tell it to Jane Austen.
Around these parts 'off' and 'on' are used as verbs, because in many of the community languages they are verbs. So we say "On the light" or "Off the gas".
I'm very partial to 'thenadays' which I'm consistently informed is not a real word. But it should be. You know exactly what it means at least.
One time I wrote 'sopratic' to describe a tone of voice. Like operatic but specifically a soprano. Baffled when it earned a red squiggle. I still can't accept it.
Families have their own words. Particular highlights in mine are 'gronk' for the crusty eye-sleep. My niece as a toddler referred to a 'cram' of many caterpillars on a plant which is an amazing collective noun.
Dialects are being smoothed out and we are losing local words. Hell, we are losing whole languages at a horrifying rate.
One of my favourite questions is what do you call giving someone a lift on the back of your bike? Here we call it a 'croggy'. Where my wife grew up it's a 'paggy' which is also a verb. You can pag someone but you cannot crog them. It's often a 'backy' which is disappointingly literal.
But also, language is a tool! It is supposed to serve us, not for us to serve it. English speakers need to remember that the English language in particular is a tool globally - for most speakers it's not their first language. I've got zero time for people being superior or gatekeepy about dialects, accents, mistakes, neologisms, any of that. Nothing boils my piss faster.