Substition

Last week, novelist Terry Pratchett passed away. I admit that I have never read any of Mr Pratchett's works, but as a wannabe author and lover of language, I always find it sad when a writer goes to that Big Publishing House in the Sky.

In the many column inches of reporting on Mr Pratchett’s life and death, there was an item of particular interest to me that appeared in – of all places – Word Spy. It reported on a word he had coined that is especially useful nowadays: substition

Mr Pratchett built this word by taking the word “superstition” (defined as “something that is not real, even though you believe in it”) and replacing “super” with “sub” to create the opposite - “substition” … defined as “something that is real, but you don’t believe in.”

Facts, nowadays, are no longer facts as we’ve understood them for centuries ... things proven by evidence, experience, and experiment to be true. Today, they are merely what one absolutely believes to be true, evidence to the contrary be damned. Creationism, trickle-down economic theory, the "War on Christmas," and just about anything Rush Limbaugh says are examples of what some people* consider to be facts.

Substition is a great word for that concept. Use it often … you’ll have plenty of opportunities, given what passes for thought these days.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Particularly on the far right. Take off the tinfoil hats and listen up, why dontcha.