February 1, 2013 (Friday)
“I like people who are enthused about things they do” — Parker Stevenson
I never use the words, “enthuse” or “enthused.” I don’t use them because one of my teachers (cannot remember which one) literally yelled at the class, “There is no such word!” When I saw it today in a headline in Google News, I decided to look it up to see if the rules have been changed. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says this about that:
“Enthuse is apparently American in origin, although the earliest known example of its use occurs in a letter written in 1827 by a young Scotsman who spent about two years in the Pacific Northwest. It has been disapproved since about 1870. Current evidence shows it to be flourishing nonetheless on both sides of the Atlantic especially in journalistic prose.”
I suppose this means it is permissible, but said permission is not enthusiastically granted by language experts. Anyhow, you won’t see the words, “enthuse” or “enthused” in any of my writings. It was drilled into me, very successfully (and enthusiastically), that these are not genuine, acceptable words.
The truth, however, according to Merriam-Webster, is that these words are OK if you really want to use them. I tell you the truth, my mind will not allow me to accept them. I have believed otherwise far too long.
This situation sort of helps me understand why the Pharisees were so stubborn about clinging to their beliefs in spite of everything Jesus said. They were wedded to their own beliefs. They found it impossible to believe otherwise. The teachings of Jesus, therefore, made them very uncomfortable. They found the situation so intolerable that they decided to remove the source of their discomfort: they killed Jesus. Is it not this same insane devotion to having things our own way that drives people today to kill others?