Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2003

Publication Title

medium

Volume

1

Issue

7

First Page

80

Last Page

80

Abstract

On the 2003 season finale of the HBO drama "Six Feet Under," viewers are left wondering whether Keith and David will be able to stay together as a couple. They were sitting at the kitchen table and eating cake, getting into one of their ritualized tiffs where David feels Keith picks on him. The substance of their conversation, though, turned to the silly when David said 'adjacently." Keith said, "Adjacently is not a word." They soon realized how petty they sounded and sort of laughed it all off.

Often, people can get very worked up about whether something is or is not a word. During my first year as a professor, I got a phone call from a man who wanted to know if reify was a word. I said yes it is; I had encountered words like reify and reification in my graduate studies. But the man challenged me on this, saying that reify wasn't in his dictionary. I don't remember which one he was using; in any event, I wasn't able to convince him of its legitimacy.

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From the column, Frankly Speaking: A Discussion of the English Language.

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