Scott Berkun, who wrote the fantastic Myths of Innovation book I’m sure to reference countless times in the coming months (it’s just… wow, so impressive – I’ll be sure to give it a proper review at some point on the blog, one with less gush and more substance/reason), has recently posted at his own blog about the word zen and its overuse, misuse, and abuse.

As I read it, I was suddenly transported back in time to countless arguments I had with my father (the high school English teacher) about different words being corrupted by our ignorant culture and/or miscreant youth. I remember the day it dawned on me that people using language in different ways is how language comes to exist in the first place, how it evolves and new meanings are added to the dictionary so as to keep the good folks at the dictionary-printing factory employed. I remember that day, because despite the seeming infallibility of that argument, my father dismissed it.

Sometimes, despite knowing it is the way of things and there is no stopping it, corruption of words just drives some people nuts - even me! Yes, I’d like to say I’m immune, but I have my own lexicon-based pet peeves (whoever is responsible for turning sherbet into a word most pronounce sherbert should be dragged out into the street and beaten with a hardcover Merriam Webster’s).