Needful Words Part 1
What do you call someone who kills plants?
On the Vocab Menace, I talk about words and concepts that may be unfamiliar to some. But what about needful words? Words that don’t yet exist to describe something? All words are invented, and maybe we need to enter a few more faster and get them into common parlance.
For instance, in English, we don’t typically use one word, like KNEEPIT, to describe the popliteal fossa, otherwise known as “the back of the knee.” In French, there is one word for this area. It is JARRET.
But let’s talk about new English suggestions.
CBC Radio One’s program, This Morning, asked listeners for suggestions, and Canadians replied with neologisms in droves. If you can’t keep a plant alive, you have the opposite of a green thumb. Idiomatically, BLACK THUMB is a common suggestion. CBC listeners offered these alternatives for people who regularly kill plants: BOTANICIDAL, EARTH-SMOTHER, BLOOMINATOR, GRASS-ASSIN, GREEN-REAPER, GROWTH NEGLIGENCE, PLANTAGONIZER, INVOLUNTARY PLANTSLAUGHTER, MEAN THUMB, and VEGECUTIONER.
Which term do you like best?