Alive and well
No problem? Sez who?
In a recent column bemoaning the deterioration of our language, Cal Thomas is, in two words, all wet. Leading with the Scrabble dictionary’s periodic announcement that it’s adding new words, Thomas purports cutely to segue with “Meanwhile, the corruption of the English language continues.”
His chief beef? When he says “Thank you,” others reply, “No problem.”
“Why should anyone consider an expression of thanks a problem?” he laments. “What happened to ‘You’re welcome’?”
The day I read this piece, I watched Episode 1 of Season 5 of “The Crown.” In a scene set in 1991, a friend of Prince Philip’s says “Thank you” and he replies, “Don’t be silly.” I could hear Thomas’ voice in the distance: “That guy’s butchering the King’s English.” And, as though he was hearing my voice: “Huh? He’s Prince of what? And that was how many years ago?”
“You’re welcome” may be the most standard response to “Thank you,” but, like “No problem,” it’s idiomatic. Which is to say that it is, per Merriam-Webster, “an expression … that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements … or in its grammatically atypical use of words … .”
At Idioms.Online, several “ways” are listed “to respond to thank you.” Joining “You’re welcome” are “Don’t mention it,” “My pleasure,” “Forget it,” “No problem,” “Not at all,” “No sweat,” “Sure,” and variations of “That’s all right.”
Merriam-Webster has published online an essay, “What’s the Problem with ‘No Problem’?” M-W opines that the many idioms used to reply to “Thank you” “have enlivened the language of politeness.” And that only “no problem” has not been “welcomed with open arms.”
To the majority of folks, “‘No problem’ is innocuous and immediately recognized as a response to an expression of thanks,” the dictionary notes. For some reason, though, some get hung up on the two negatives, “no” and “problem,” then literalize the phrase. Like Thomas does.
Thomas’s diatribe continues: “Some words … continue to be misapplied (a great 10-letter word) while pronouns and nouns are increasingly used in the same sentence, in violation of sound grammar rules.”
I don’t know a single word nerd who’d agree that misapplied is a great word. A root word with a prefix and a suffix is almost never a great word.
You want great words? Look no further than a recent Sunday New York Times crossword. Not just in the answers, but also in the clues.
It included as answers “blooming onion,” “next to nothing” and “oneshot deals.” I can hear Thomas’ crowd saying, “But those aren’t words; they’re phrases.” To which I respond, “They’re in-the-language stand-alones. In a word nerd’s book, they’re words.”
That same puzzle had in its clues “Skedaddles,” “Squooshes” and “Witticism.” The last of which is a rare case of a noun with a double-suffix achieving greatness. May your life be filled with witticisms—hearing them, saying them.
In a TED Talk a few years ago, lexicographer Erin McKean, founder of Wordnik, said old-school lexicographers were like law enforcement officers. If a group of letters didn’t obey certain rules, then it could not enter the dictionary.
The modern approach is more akin to that of fishing: A large net is cast into the sea of usage. Then, when it’s pulled ashore, everything is shared— with examples of how they’re being used. Erin’s goal is to make every word in the language lookupable. Now, there’s a great word!
A prolonged study, of good crosswords and other genres as well, has me convinced that our language is alive, well, and growing beautifully.