Losslessly

 [From August 1, 2009]

I am fascinated by words.

Just the other day, I was attempting to use some previously unfamiliar photo editing software. At one point the message popped up, “you cannot rotate this image losslessly.”

Say what?

I understood the intent of the message. If I were to click the rotate button, I would lose some picture quality.

But “losslessly.”

The word looked awkward. I knew I wouldn’t find it in my dictionary. To my eyes, it was simply…wrong.

Language, though, is constantly evolving. Resistance is futile.

“Losslessly” might be an undocumented worker today, but it is well on its way to full citizenship in the English language. And so it goes.

At the same time new words are finding a place in our vocabulary, some lovely old words are suffering from neglect. At home, and at the office, I keep a dictionary close at hand and consult it regularly. While clarifying the nuances of meaning for one word, I’ll start scanning the surrounding words and always discover some gems.

What set me off yesterday was the word “thankworthy.” People don’t use that word very often, so when I saw it, I turned to the dictionary where it was defined as “worthy of thanks or gratitude." There was no surprise to any of this. I was merely reminded, once again, how many fine words are going to waste.

The next entry after “thankworthy” was intriguing.

“Thank-you-ma’am”

For many years, I’ve heard the expression “wham, bam, thank you ma’am,” and I thought I knew what it meant.

Maybe not.

According to the dictionary, a “thank you ma’am” is “a bump or depression in a road.”

I’ll leave it to others more clever than myself to reconcile “thank you ma’am” with “wham, bam, thank you ma’am.” Until then, I remain perplexed.

Without turning a page, I found plenty of other nifty words.

Thalassocrat – One who has maritime supremacy.

Thane – a free retainer of an Anglo-Saxon lord.

Here’s a beauty. I challenge you to drop this word into a conversation today:

Thaumaturgist – a performer of miracles.

I love it. “I went to see my thaumaturgist this week and she told me…”

There’s more. Chances are, you have a pair of thenars and didn’t know it. Well, you know it, but you didn’t know that’s what they’re called.

Thenar – the ball of the thumb.

I’m ready to start a campaign to bring “thenar” into common usage. What with people texting like mad, the word has its place. Someone could hawk a remedy for thenar fatigue caused by excessive texting.

I didn’t find a listing for “theiliad” but I did find “theodicy.”

Theodicy – defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil.

Aren’t you glad the dictionary breaks up all that fine print with an occasional line drawing? More often than not, it is something that you never have seen and never will see. So it was with the illustration of page 915.

Theorbo - a 17th century musical instrument like a large lute but having two necks.

Like they always say, two necks are better than one.

I could turn the page, and see what treasures await us on page 916 of the dictionary…

…but I’d better not.