Dear Mr. Merriam Webster,
Loving the turn of a good word or phrase, I want to bring this delicious verbal morsel to your attention, wondering if your dictionary would be interested in joining my campaign to popularize it. During a recent presentation I attended, the speaker said something along the lines of, “Concerning Joshua, it recurred to me…” Thus truly joining “re” and “occur” as a full-on verb, in and of itself. No mere reoccurring thoughts or reoccurring dreams or symptoms. Pure, simple, unadulterated recurring. When something has occurred to you more than once, it has, indeed, recurred. I sat up a bit straighter and pulled out my notebook when I heard this phrase because I, too, have recurred things.
Consider the following illustrations of the ways in which it could enhance our language:
- It recurs to me that I forgot to pay you for lunch. Useful in those times when this isn’t the first time something has occurred to you and who among us had this not happened to? I’d dare say, nary a few.
- As Sally came in late to the meeting, it recurred to her colleagues for the 20th time that week that she desired to be anywhere, but with them. Useful for situations in which something has moved beyond the mere annoying by the repetition of the occurrence.
- Watching the ball fall to the ground, Coach Johnson cringed, recurring the discussion with his wife over breakfast concerning Will’s ability to play centerfield. Useful for those conversations you seem to have over and over, never tiring of them.
Having read several books on the making of the dictionary of all dictionaries, the OED (I know the Oxford English Dictionary needs no introduction to you.), it is, put simply, humbling to think that this proposed use of “recur” may join the ranks of other popular words. I do so love this living process of wordsmithing. Imagine if things hadn’t gone viral or people didn’t know about Tebowing?
I’ll continue to watch and listen for useful additions and pass them on.
Respectfully,
Amy Young
P.S. Dear reader, what have you heard recently that you propose being added to the English language or moved up in popularity?
When we had little girls around our table, and a cup had too much milk, we would see an overfloating cup.
Or
Someone might use sag when we couldn’t be sure whether we had a sack or a bag of potato chips in the cupboard.
Love it! Overfloating and Sag would be great additions and I’m going to start using them today. Thanks for the suggestions! Amy
Amy, You must realize who the big sister is who led us to coin some of our vocabulary.
I do! And I can just imagine her young voice coming up with it =)
Brilliant! And I think you know the words I would have banned!
I’m sorry, I’m not hearing you. Wink!
Awesome post. U R so funny. Love it./ Sue
Thanks Sue! That means a lot coming from you =)! Amy
LOVE IT! Will look for ways to use it and let you know if its receptivity. :) I, too, enjoy wordsmithing…despite the fact that I am drawing an utter blank trying to think of some of my favorite turns of phrase at the moment.
Thanks for joining in the campaign — let me know if you make any progress! Amy