In this installment of Word Knots we’ll continue with our new series, where we’ll look at overused words and phrases that should be avoided. These aren’t just clichés, they signal a lack of imagination.

Our source for this installment is The Dimwit’s Dictionary by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Edison, NJ: Castle Nooks). This is a very a useful book that’s very entertaining to anyone who cares about language: I highly recommend it.

From Fiske (excerpted and edited):

dis

An infantile phrase. 

Dis is a prefix aspiring to be a word. Are we to allow un and anti, non, and pre to follow? People are increasingly mono- and disyllabic as it is; let’s rail against this foolishness, this affront, this dimwitted dis.

■

This is a big one on my list. Although you can get away with it in an informal conversation, it has no place in anything even trying to be taken serious as literature.

Fiske makes several suggestions for replacements, including disparage, dismiss, denigrate, disrespect.

Let’s look at an example of where it can be replaced effectively by rewriting the sentence.

Original:

The new boss attempted to appeal to the disgruntled staff by dissing the previous boss.

Edit:

The new boss attempted to appeal to the disgruntled staff by denigrating the previous boss.

.

Or

The new boss attempted to appeal to the disgruntled staff by disparaging the previous boss.

When editing your own work, keep in mind that minor changes can have a huge impact.

Remember: word choice matters.

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