As I get older and times invariably change, one can't help but listen to the transformation that's occurred/ing in our daily conversation. The repetitive use some words get in order to assist many of us to describe or convey our wishes, emotions or feelings, about a particular situation or how we feel about each other?

A word that has crept into our daily discourse, either among family members, friends or acquaintances, but is frequently used and seemingly with abandon. But in my humble view, has the very worst, of the worst of overtones, and is probably at the very core of ALL our deteriorating relations. Those relations are usually of international significance, and generally have ineradicable - deep religious implications, as we've all witnessed.

Internally among our own, there's always an ugly manifestation of this vile word, as evidenced whenever we have a need to elect a new federal, state or local government; even among our own small circle of family or friends.

That specific word is intended to be, the most corrosive, injurious, destructive, and hurtful. Probably more so than perhaps any other within our language....that word in my own opinion is; 'HATE'!

Please consider for a moment, what it is that drives many of our enemies, our criminals, even some of our colleagues? By no means is 'HATE' limited to the aforementioned, in fact even our friends, family members, in fact anyone or any group so minded that may wish to really hurt us, are generally motivated or driven and ultimately 'infected' by 'HATE' !

Sounds like 'hate' speech...

Dear O Sung Wu,

There's a variety of words tha can conjure up all sorts
of images for us individually and because of their
connotations can cause an aversion to those particular
words. The New York Times explains:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/science/moist-word-aversion.html

Your reference to the word "hate" reminds me of the golden oldie:

"An old Cherokee told his grandson:

"My child, there's a battle between two wolves inside us all."

"One is Evil. It's anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority,
lies, and ego."

"The other is Good. It's joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness,
and truth."

The boy thought about it, and asked:

"Grandfather, which wolf wins?"

The old man quietly replied:

"The one you feed."

Hi there FOXY...

It's really good to hear from you, and I hope you're in sustained good health FOXY.

Some of these wise indigenous peoples have developed some meaningful, even profound axioms or aphorisms over time. None more so then the American Native Indian. I guess through years of oppression and repression, and being tightly corralled by the US Cavalry during the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's, I suppose you would need to develop some measure of personal philosophy, otherwise you'd be ground into complete submission, and devoid of any identity.

I can only wonder if there's a word more hurtful, wounding and malicious than 'hate', within our English lexicon ? I myself make use of the word frequently, mainly because my vocabulary is relatively restricted, and my education could only be described as rudimentary.

I do wonder therefore, how much 'hatred' is about, and what can humanity do about it ? Can we shed the word altogether ? If so, would it make even a skerrick of difference ? To occasion an act of calculated violence upon another, is it necessary that one must harbour a genuine sentiment of 'hatred' for them first ? Is this word 'hate' a vital ingredient or antecedent to 'premeditated violence', as opposed to spontaneous violence - similar to that of self-defence ?

Hi folks : )

o sung wu,

"....mainly because my vocabulary is relatively restricted, and my education could only be described as rudimentary.'

Not in the least, my good man....you're one of the most eloquent contributors on this forum.

Dear o sung wu,

Mine is the word 'client' most notably, but not wholly restricted to, those who should be called patients.

This economic overlay the neo-liberal technocrats have been determined to impose over everything real serves to dehumanise and degrade the notion of individual human beings.

Just as an aside I have several others which are more bugbears than anything else. My current one is people answering questions with the first word out of their mouth being 'So...”. It is recent, as in the last 5 years, and it bugs the hell out of me.

One of our traditional favourites among my mates, which usually results in the transgressor having to scull his beer is the word 'actually'. We have deemed it is perhaps one of the most useless word in the English language and no sentence is the lesser for omitting it.

But the ultimate annoying word for these mature ears is 'like' which still seem to have currency with the younger generation.

I will have to ask my mother what words we children used that annoyed her. I'm sure there were a few.