The Word For Today Is...

The word for today is vetting. Can you say vetting? Do you even know what vetting is?! Well, it’s being thrown around your TV set all day and all night by political candidates and reporters and studio talking heads and now everyday folks.

According to Webster, to vet is to evaluate for possible approval and acceptance for a position. Currently, the position-du jour for vetting is the Vice Presidential candidate for the Republican and Democratic parties. And both parties desperately need something good to go along with the name that will be on the top of the ticket.

The issue today is the casual dispersal of the word vetting. Have you ever noticed that when the media collectively learns (or pulls out of mothballs) a new word or phrase that it must be used ad nauseam. It is as if the only way a reporter or news gathering organization can make it sit with the popular kids in the cafeteria is that they repeatedly say the magic word.

A few years ago the word was embed. When the news folks sent reporters in the fray with military units to report from Iraq, they were appropriately given the term embeds. Was it the right word for the situation? Of course! But when one news story can find a way to incorporate that “new magic word” 12 times in one segment, it’s a bit much. Can you say, “overkill”? [Well, I guess you could, but you might fall in to the overused word trap.] Actually, it’s more along the lines of “I learned something new and I’m going to make sure that you know how smart I am.” And “If you don’t use my phraseology (how’s that for a great word) then you are clearly behind the times.”

Think back. Remember these great words (and phrases) that have been, for a brief faddish period of time, the word of the day: disenfranchised, venue, hanging chads, paradigm shift, malaise, electability, seat on the bus, metrosexual, nuance, post 9/11, blogosphere, and of course, the ever popular bling. Don’t you just want to use these words right now? No wait, the popularity of most of these are past, with the exception of the certain words that are dutifully recycled due to this being an election year.

But I’m starting to digress…