What's Wrong With This Picture? What's Wrong With This Word?

Well, there's really nothing wrong with this picture. It's the fact that this picture is used to advertise Cialis, a drug used to correct ED (poor Mr. Ed, no wonder he talked so much). I mean, what screams ED more loudly (and the ineffectiveness of anything trying to rectify ED) than a couple separated by porcelain, each alone in his and her one-seater bathtub? But you know all this.

Rather, I use this picture to call a bit of attention to my new purpose in life--saving the use of the word desuetude: [des-wi-tood, -tyood]--the state of being no longer used or practiced (source: dictionary.com).

I first encountered this wonderful word in a vocabulary textbook I was using when teaching high school English years ago. It was a splendid book, which I discovered years later (still years ago, but not that many years ago) had sadly fallen out of print--that's correct, it had reached the state of being no longer used. Desuetude.

I next encountered the word, well, nowhere, unless it was in one of those passages of Joyce's Ulysses I kind of skimmed through. How ironic: nobody seems to use the word desuetude anymore. (Don't even try to suggest nobody ever used the word; Jane Austen was a fiend about the word. "Manners, desuetude! Marriageable men with money, desuetude!" Desuetude, desuetude, desuetude, all day long with her.)

And so, tragically, it appears desuetude becomes desuetude. How sad. I mean if a guy buys and ingests Cialis and spends the rest of his life mired in a uni-tub, more fool him. But to allow the word desuetude to lapse into desuetude is shameful. This must not stand! Meaning need not be destiny.

Do you know how dire the situation is? For research purposes I looked up the word desuetude at some highbrow sites and this is what I found: "desuetude was not found in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary." The Oxford English Dictionary (yeah, that one, on-line version, albeit) replied: "There are no results for your search. Please try again or contact us." Oxford and Cambridge! Now maybe those Brits are still fighting a few hundred years of wars, seeing that desuetude has some French origins, but criminy, desuetude's in trouble folks.

So dear readers (plural--I know the word "desuetude" does not apply to the writing or reading of this blog) it is up to us to save the word desuetude. Pull it out of the dusty storage bin of your lexicon and strew the word desuetude throughout your daily chattering. Mom, next time you see me, say, "Rescue your razor from desuetude, my son." Ladies, next time a man fails to open a door for you, say, "Desuetude got the best of your chivalry, dude?" Men, upon entering your physician's office, proudly declare, "Desuetude no more, gimme a scrip for Cialis, doc."

Thinking globally and acting locally has not fallen into desuetude. Inundate your congressman/woman with telegrams (might as well rescue that communication mode while we're at it) stating: "Action yes, desuetude no! Health care reform now!"

Please, it's such a pretty word. Never mind how it looks, listen to how it speaks, nay sings--des-wi-tood. Three gorgeous and totally different syllables merging into one unified overwhelmingly beautiful whole like cheese, bread, tomatoes=pizza. Or Scranton, Wilkes, and Barre. Desuetude sounds like a lone branch blowing in a midnight breeze. A come-hither from an oasis. A "next" in the line at the BMV.

Enough, if I had all the bandwidth in the world, I could fill it up with paeans to this phenomenal word. But words aren't enough, we must act. Become a certified desue-dude now: go forth and speak it.

Bill Withers-Use Me