A point to ponder: Why would you call a premeditated murder “unthinkable”? If it was premeditated, obviously somebody put some thought into it.
Actually (now that I THINK about it), “unthinkable” is kind of a dumb word. I mean, you can think about anything. Try to think of something unthinkable. You can’t, because you just THOUGHT of it!
I know, I know, it is not a word that is meant to be taken literally. And here I am using “literally” in its actual (literal) meaning, not the way some people use it, indiscriminately for emphasis (as in, “I’m LITERALLY starving to death!”). I realize that “unthinkable” means “I hate to even think about it” or “I would never even think of doing that!” or words to that effect (incidentally, that is one of my favorite expressions: “words to that effect”).
Sometimes I just wish people would learn more words so they could use a word that means what they mean it to mean (if you see what I mean).
I suppose one could argue (and there is always one that will argue) (you know who you are, although you probably deny it) that the language is always evolving. Expressions fall out of favor, phrases are coined, slang terms magically appear. It just bothers me when they do because people are too damn lazy to find the right word so they just use any old word that’s handy.
Then again, who am I to complain about anybody’s laziness? I am going to be lazy enough to end this post here and call it Non-Sequitur Thursday. I hope you are not literally mad at me. That would be unthinkable.
