chronicle of street rats and the crumbs they leave

...Worsen...

This word bugs me. And I mean "bug" in the annoying gnat way, swarm-wise. This is a verb for the lazy man, a catch-all that refuses to specifically get at the motion of a thing. As some of you may know, my job requires me to edit scientific research articles and studies that will appear in our (purposely unnamed) journal. This verb gets the trophy for most frequent use.

Finally, with some experience, I understand some of the subject matter enough to replace the weakling verb with one more specific to the case. Other times context eludes me and I must leave it and cringe. I don’t know the etymology of this verb or the history of its associates. It seems to have developed, lazily, from its adjective "worse," the comparative form of "bad."

(I just did some quick research on "worsen," and on how "bad" becomes "worse," but turned up nothing. I do have work to do—in fact, I'm editing a paper written in English by people whose first (or even second or third, etc.) language is not English (I highly commend the endeavor, but it's hurting my head) that relies very heavily on "worsen".)

This is not to say that I am against sculpting language into new and more malleable toys, bending parts of speech, but when doing so weakens rather than enhances meaning, a wrong turn has been made in the maze. Turn back and try again for something I can bite into and understand. Don't do it simply out of laziness.

I suppose the word bugs me yet more because there continue to be cases when my brain can’t seem to clear a path for an appropriate replacement to appear, and I feel inadequate.

Rats pass phonemes like batons in the laboratory and a new umbrella opens.

Which reminds me, I think there is a book relay going on in Brooklyn (roughly where Lorimer St and Driggs Ave intersect). As I was crossing the street, a man wearing blue jeans and a nice jacket sprinted by with a book in hand. A few minutes later, a girl came sprinting down the sidewalk from the other direction, wearing street clothes (i.e., not jogging gear), also carrying a book. Come to think of it, while I was driving home from work last week, I saw two young girls also wearing street clothes, also carrying books, sprinting across the street.

If anyone has any information, whether you’ve witnessed it yourself or whether you happen to know a thing or two about this book relay—perhaps it takes place elsewhere—send word. This must be understood or I'm not made of rat spittle.