Words

On February 16, Gwen Ifill discussed public anger at Congressional incumbents with editors Amy Walter and Stuart Rothenberg on the PBS Newshour.

As usual, I was listening and roaming the Internet. When Ifill asked, "Is it just people are so unhappy in a kind of inchoate way, that they just want to lash out at somebody?" I stopped mid-typing.Inchoate? On the air?

And everyone understands the word?

Because I was on Facebook, I immediately posted: "Wow! Gwen Ifill just said 'inchoate' on TV and her guests understood her!" Within five minutes, six of my friends clicked the "Like" button.

I don't remember exactly when I first heard inchoate spoken aloud, but I do know it was a professor who spoke it. I wrote it down in my notes and experienced a major AHA moment: I had known the word from my reading but had always assumed it was pronounced "in chote." How lovely, I thought then, to learn the pronunciation and to know someone who uses it so easily.

I just looked up the word online and discovered the etymology, which like many etymologies, is both logical and surprising. Like the part of that yoke being prepared to be attached to the plow, I felt something lock in place that day. I also felt something lock in place when I realized that two of the six "Likes" had been posted by former students, who learned something permanent, too. How lovely to know such people.

How lovely it is to know such people who know and love words.