#494 Nubile

The other day I used the word versatile and it got me thinking. My mind is agile that way. Words that end in I-L-E- are almost always more socially acceptable. Partially it’s the sound of them. And partially it’s because they somehow manage to achieve a verbal distance. Saying the word “touch” is immediate and in your face. Saying the phrase “tactile sensation” removes any possible threat you may feel from that encroachment on personal territory. “Nubile” doesn’t sound as scary or as socially questionable as “horny” or “slutty”, nor does it carry with it any assumed condemnation. “Infertile”, pronounced with a long “I” in the last syllable, adds an air of scientific detachment to an emotionally difficult situation. “Domicile” sounds like a place you’re living but not really living. Not a home, just kind of a place where you’re staying while you’re waiting for some other change to progress in your life. As in: “He was staying in a domicile while he waited for the witness protection program to find him a new home.” “Juvenile”, delivered with an appropriate sneer, is such a snitty little down-your-nose denunciation. “Hey, they’re just kids”, is warmer and more human. “Pedophile”, unfortunately, sounds like a foot doctor. “Pervert” cuts to the quick. Or consider the word erection. The erection of a building was something you hardly ever heard discussed in the media because that e-word was considered objectionable. But the big-budget-for-marketing-because-they-charge-so-much-for-drugs pharmaceutical mega-corps discovered that the word erectile would work instead. It was so distant, scientifically detached and pristine, it could even be used during the family hour on the Christian channel. Heck, even former presidential candidates could say erectile. And do so while the guy that beat him was getting into trouble for executive deployment of same. Because erectile refers only obliquely to things that are erect. One could have an erectile spine or an erectile stuffed lizard—an erectile reptile as it were. An erectile disorder? Sounds like something my hostile third grade teacher would say when she wanted to correct my posture.
America, ya gotta love it