Margaret Serious

How to change your ‘gruntlement’

During my job search — which is a long way to say “recently” — I’ve found a kindred spirit on LinkedIn,com. The Grammar Girl column there, which features all sorts of “quick and dirty tips,” has a recent post here headlined “Don’t worry, be gruntled.”

Guest author Bonnie Trenga credits P.G. Wodehouse, one of the funnier writers ever to use English, as mentioning a character in 1938’s “The Code of the Woosters” as “far from being gruntled.”

This made me laugh and remember some of the adventures WGN-AM’s Bob Collins used to have on his radio program, from saying of unimpressive things “I’m whelmed” to reacting to failed skits or jokes with “It’s not a show-stopper, but it does slow it down a lot.”

Being Serious about words can include having fun with them, of course, so I have borrowed those phrases over the years. I don’t remember exactly where I came up with another, reacting to someone saying “I’m discombobulated” by telling them to call me when they’re “recombobulated.” It might have been my dad’s creation, if I didn’t try it first.

So if you’re running low on things to play with, try some words. At the very least, you’ll get people to listen to you more carefully!

Margaret Serious has a page on Facebook.

Filed under:
Expressions, Words Worth Defending