Dont mess with -ness When my son, Seth, was three, he coined the word plumpcious to describe an olive that he found fat and juicy. That word worked for me and we use it all the time in my family. Many words have crept into our language, like Googled and texted, and have become accepted. They fill a void, explaining or describing something that didnt exist. However, there are words that have sneaked into our lexicon that are understandable, make sense and are commonly accepted, but they should be avoided because they are replacing words that already exist. I’m talking specifically about abstract nouns - the words created by adding the suffix –ness. Happy, an adjective, becomes the noun happiness. Kind, an adjective, becomes the noun kindness. Sad, an adjective, becomes the noun sadness. See where I’m going here. But that trick of adding -ness doesnt work all of the time. Some adjectives, like humble and anxious already have corresponding nouns. So although you will find humbleness and anxiousness in the dictionary, the preferred noun forms of those adjectives are humility and anxiety. The same goes for courageous and lucky. Instead of using courageousness and luckiness, use courage and luck. Thanks to Daily Writing Tips for a partial list of adjectives with their corresponding abstract nouns: angry/anger anxious/anxiety brave/bravery chaotic/chaos compassionate/compassion courageous/ courage curious/curiosity deceitful/deceit evil/evil generous/generosity humorous/humor imaginative/imagination intelligent/intelligence jealous/jealousy joyful/joy loyal/loyalty lucky/luck luxurious/luxury mature/maturity opinionated/opinion painful/pain peculiar/peculiarity responsible/responsibility romantic/romance sane/sanity sensitive/sensitivity sorrowful/sorrow strong/strength stupid/stupidity successful/success sympathetic/sympathy tolerant/tolerance warm/warmth wise/wisdom witty/wit
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 12:54:08 +0000
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