“Jour”
According to Merriam-Webster (my dictionary of choice), “jour” can be an abbreviation for “journal”.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME HERE?
Wow, am I glad there is a way to shorten THAT word, because that second syllable would have sent me over my limit, FOR. SURE. “-nal” – it’s barely even a syllable – it’s more like a an escape of air from the back for your throat, kicked off from a tongue thrust to that spot just above the gums of your front teeth. WHEW, when I put if that way, it actually sounds like a lot of work! It’s not. Try it. “-nal”. Now, together (grab a friend to spot you in case you become dizzy and pass out) – “journal”. One more time if you’ve got it in you… jour……nal.
Seriously, though, this brings to mind the “old person’s” rant from the dawn of time, and I have now become the old person. “When I was a kid, we….” fill in the blank. We worked harder, we walked miles and miles to school, we had more homework, we sure as HECK used both syllables to talk about our journALS.
“Dad, that is so “sus” (as in, suspicious). At least we’ve peeled away TWO pesky syllables there and perhaps preserved a little bit of caloric output for later. Does it become acceptable at some point if you are saving ENOUGH time and energy? Or is is just lazy? Or “cute”?
Tiresome.
Words are my lifeblood. My friends. And EVER SINCE I WAS A KID I’ve used a lot of them. The longer the better. With as many syllables as possible. It’s an art. Now, perhaps I need to be open-minded enough to at least consider that an “art” exists in this new minimalist form as well – r u 4 real? TTYL.
No.
For those of you unfamiliar with “SoCS” (Stream of Consciousness Saturday), (<– there’s some irony right there I’ll let you parse out for yourself), it’s a free-write exercise, generally with a word prompt. Today’s prompt was “jour”. Cosmopolitan that I am, my mind immediately jumped to the French (“jour” means “day”, as in bonjour and soup du jour), and I could have just run with it from there. But then I noticed in the “rules” for the exercise that there was a “bonus” for starting or ending the entry with “jour”. (There’s really no bonus – it’s just motivation for word nerds). I was flummoxed. Although well aware that jour meant day, I could not think of a way to start using the word – le jour, bonjour, du jour…. Curiosity kicked in (as it so often does) and I wondered, “does ‘jour’ have some English meaning of which I am not yet aware?” Now THAT would be delicious. I live for a new word. Yeah, I’m a dork. This is not news to anyone.
Enter – Dictionary:
Yup – there it is. And the rant began.
I just don’t think we use words enough anymore. And we certainly don’t use words WELL anymore. Yes, I know, I sound old. I feel old. I’m on the shorter side of 50 towards 100. I’m reminded of a mentoring session on American Idol a few years (10?) ago with Barry Manilow (bring on the jokes) where he talked about what made a perfect song: A great tune and even better lyrics. Have you listened to what qualifies as popular music these days? It lacks both, for the most part (yes, there are exceptions, just like I’m sure there was awful music “in my day”), but I will hold to the point.
We’re lazy.
Read any dystopian novel. Part of our downfall will be (is already) laziness.
And it starts by chopping three letters from the end of “journal“.
It’s a slippery slope, friends. Life is short. No need to make it shorter.
defying atrophy 
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