"What do you read, my lord?" "Words, words, words."

Orson Scott Card has a few choice words about... words, at his website, The Ornery American:

I think it's about time we remembered that words are supposed to have meanings. It's sort of a quiet agreement among all the speakers of a particular language, that you try to use a word according to its agreed-upon meaning.

Some of the words he chooses to study? "Catastrophe," "liar," "divisive" and "partisan."


Not that I expect some of my friends to think it anything more than "divisive partisan lies." Still, it's well worth reading.