Vernaculary

You know those words that aren't really words, but they sound like they could be words and we hear people use them like they are real words? Not exactly a malaprop, a totally made up word. Like "nother." And "flusterated." And "InMyFaceSter." All words that aspire to achieve the greatness of truthiness and insinuate themselves into our collective vernaculary (vernacular + vocabulary), not a traditional dictionary.

I went down this little path while waiting in traffic and listening to the news on the radio this morning. A report about a "cautionary landing" of a commercial airliner at the Denver airport got me thinking about how much less sensational the phrase sounds compared to "emergency landing."

Then I started wonder--what is a cautionary landing? Is it like a cautionary tale? That didn't sound right.

So I looked it up.

Turns out the technically correct phrase is "precautionary landing" (although I can't cite an online source--if you can, leave a comment). Maybe "cautionary" is one of those concepts that has moved in and rooted itself in our collective unconscious on January 21 of this year (remember when Obama and Roberts did a second take of the oath out of an "abundance of caution?") But that's a whole nother story.

Hope you get to end your day like I did with a Stephen Colbert nightcap. Have a laugh at the skit with his Spanish speaking friend, Estaban.