Underblog.co.uk

I’m not sure why I like the word Wrongheaded so much. I guess it’s partly because it sounds so arrogant and condescending: It doesn’t just mean that you think the person in question is wrong about something, it suggests that their whole outlook is based on some silly error, or that there is some kind of fundamental defect in their thought process. Obviously, this is quite a — ahem — bad-ass cuss. It’s a shame then that the word only seems to be used by politicians, activists, scientists, strategists and people like that. I think that the normal man on the street should add this insult to their vocabulary. How much more offended would you be if a moody teenager called you a “wronghead” instead of a dick-head?

There is also something comically surreal about the concept of wrongheadedness. To call someone’s ideas or opinions incorrect is one thing; To say that their whole head is just plain wrong is quite another. It makes it sound as if God was momentarily distracted and put a coconut on top of their neck by mistake.

This reminds me of some important but unrelated advice. If you ever need to ask an Indonesian to chop a coconut for you, you would do well to note the following vocabulary:

Kalapa : Coconut

Kepala : Head

You have been warned!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2004 at 01:16 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.