Some random dispatches from the word front . . .

Casting A Pall On Shock — When did it become mandatory for angry people to describe themselves as "shocked and appalled"?

Citizens are "shocked and appalled" by potholes, pooches and parking tickets. Public officials are "shocked and appalled" by crooks, cronies and crackpots. Newspaper readers are "shocked and appalled" by the overuse of alliteration.

OK, so there are a few times when this melodramatic phrase is appropriate. When an MIT student walked into Boston's Logan Airport last year with a circuit board and wiring on her chest, state police Major Scott Pare described himself, appropriately enough, as "shocked and appalled."

But for lesser transgressions, let's dial down the language. "Surprised and annoyed" would be nice.

"Oversighted" Sighting — When John McCain said recently that a Congressional committee would "oversight" an issue, he unwittingly demonstrated how a word's part of speech can travel full circle.

In a Rube Goldberg-like sequence, 1. the VERB "oversee" led to the NOUN "oversight" ("Congressional oversight"); 2. this in turn led to the ADJECTIVE "oversight" ("oversight committee"); and 3. this was then converted back to a VERB ("oversight an issue").

McCain, of course, could have used the original verb "oversee," but the new verb "oversight" is a better choice because it alludes to "Congressional oversight."

Adjusted for "Conflation" — What's the latest buzzword of political pundits? Say hello to "conflate." An old and perfectly respectable verb meaning "to bring together or meld," "conflate" has picked up a negative sense of "confusing two different things."

New Yorker writer Hendrik Hertzberg, for instance, recently called John McCain's erroneous suggestion that Iran's Shiite mullahs and Iraq's Sunni terrorists were allies "rhetorical conflation."

Turn, Turn, Turn — If you have any doubt that times are a' changin', consider this: People are starting to use "turn of the century" in a new way.

I realized this when I read these words in a recent article by Ian Buruma: "The first time I visited this august assemblage, around the turn of the century . . ."

Images of starched collars and brown derbies immediately came to mind. "Wow," I thought, "this guy is old!" Then it hit me; Buruma meant eight years ago, not 108 years ago.

Call me "shocked," though not "appalled."

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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