Thought of the Day 11.04.09

As someone who loves language, I regularly find myself in a linguistic bind. On the one hand, I can use the word or grammatical construction which is common but which I know to be inaccurate. On the other hand, I can use the correct word or construction, knowing this will make me sound strange to most people. Loving others enough to want them unhindered in hearing my ideas, this dilemma vexes me. My normal solution is to find a different, correct way of saying the same thing without sounding weird…or British.

Consider the simple word “assume.” If, based on past experience, I say, “I assume he’ll pay his bill,” someone will likely quip about what happens to both of us when one assumes, heh, heh. Cute, but not helpful. See, “assume” can have many meanings, but “to form a belief recklessly” is not one of them. On the contrary, making an assumption requires some sort of reasoning process rather than wild (and imprudent) guessing.

To avoid this problem, I’m willing to use another word when I mean that I’ve thought about it and formed a rational conclusion. But what word should I use? Infer? Suppose? Reason? Surmise? Deduce? Presume? “Yes, Mr. Holmes. Quite so.” Only “assume” is not awkward in such expressions.

So, feeling like my culture has betrayed the language I love, I’m left without a satisfactory alternative. This makes me grumpy because I assume there’s just no way to win here.