I love words. I love using them. I love looking at their meaning. I love studying where they came from.

In fact, that’s our business here at the Soundstrategies as an audio and video production studio. Putting words together in a meaningful way is what we strive for in all our video and audio productions. Whether we’re working on affordable voice overs with a radio voice talent, book narrations, script narrations or streaming web videos, writing TV scripts or radio scripts, the ability to communicate a concept or an idea succinctly and with words that are understandable is an art form that takes effort, work and thought.

That’s why the abuse of words and phrases bugs me.

There are some words I really, really don’t like. Like the word wellness. I first became aware of the word in the ‘80’s, but I’m sure there were people who were using it well before that. It sounds vaguely Orwellian to me. Wellness, roll that one around for awhile.

About the same time, another word popped up that originally was used by those people who populate the health products industry. You know the herbs and potions that are supposed to clean you out, clean you up and extend your life. The word was holistic. The vitamin and herbal salespeople started using it, as well as the rolfers and crystal triangle shamans.

Holistic and wellness go hand in hand and are somewhat synonymous. What they are really, are fancy expressions that mean good health, or healthy living. Why isn’t that sufficient?

Oh, and let’s not leave out the expression “life extension“. That phrase makes living longer sound like extruded aluminum.

Another word that bugs me is the word “organic”. Somehow, organic food is supposed to be better than food that is not organic. Somehow, it is healthier and more wholesome. Really? Why would that be? Organic food is grown in soil that is enriched with “decaying plant and animal waste; compost, grass clippings, dried leaves, kitchen scraps, manure and fish heads”. Personally, I’ll go with a little nitrogen made by Dow.

Besides, I’m not too sure about those organic farmers. I’ve seen some who I suspect don’t wash as frequently as I do, because they are trying to conserve water. We have one around here, who looks like that, and he drives a truck that not only looks like a gross polluter, it is a candidate for eye pollution, too.