New words are the fresh blood of a language. It's nice to have fresh blood. But it would be nice if it were healthy, rather than diseased blood. And it would be nice if it were not added at a rate that makes it difficult to assimilate it and get it circulating usefully. I also like new words, partly because I make them up myself, from time to time, and I need some kind of cover for doing that. And I realize that there are even better reasons than that for having them. I can "sync" my computer and my iPod in a way that has nothing at all to do with time. "Synchronize" still has that chron- in the middle, but "sync" doesn't need it any more. All is well.

However, I would not put a sticker on my car that said NEW WORDS ARE GOOD. For one thing, if you make new ones instead of using the old ones carefully, it gets harder and harder to say some things that really need to be said. I do have an example in mind, but for now, ask yourself why the expression "data points" had to be invented. Or why a sickly spinach plant would be said to be "healthy" on the grounds that it is good for you. Well. Enough of that.

I would like to write soon about pleasures; about "delights," more specifically, since delights are at the heart of being a dilettante. I would like to talk about significant and insignificant delights and I would like those words to refer to delights that signify--they act as signs of or that point toward--something and to delights that are attended to not because of their significance, but because they are there and they are delightful. That's what I'd like to do. I can't, of course, because "significant" is now most likely to be understood to mean "important." But I don't want to say "important" so I have to use a different word. I find that very trying.