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WARNING! Contains how squid and octopi eat

[ 6 minute read ]

Languid Squid

I am not really sure what 'languid' means. I have never heard anyone say it out loud. Rarely, have I read it. Yet, I have used it a few times. In fact, I used it as recently as yesterday.

Words change over time and the meanings much more frequently than the spelling. For some people, a word means one thing, and for a different set of people in a different cultural milieu, or generation, another. Many people use words metaphorically, if that is even the right word. James O'Brien, an LBC radio presenter, will use the word 'strong' for a solid argument that might stand a series of robust attempts to destroy it; he is not unusual in doing so.

The word 'languid' troubles me because I want to use it, but cannot. It is much the same as when I bought a Collins Pocket Thesaurus when I was sixteen. I felt misunderstood so I bought a book of words hoping that someone would recognise one of them and then nod when they heard me use it. I would then have felt that at least I was communicating in the right language and someone understood me, even for a moment. Of course, I had PTSD by then, so there really was no hope of that. My words were the same as everyone else's but I had attached different weight to many of them. When I said. 'I want to talk to someone' others heard me say, 'Let's have a conversation about nothing in particular.' I meant I want to throw up and vomit all my feelings and then feel better - that is what 'talk' meant to me.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also known as linguistic relativity, suggests that we are influenced by the language we speak; the words in our language and the meanings we attach to them influence how we think and perceive our environment. Of course, I can't leave it at that, and there is criticism of it. I am not particularly interested in what the criticism is. In my life, I only need seeds for which to crystalise my thoughts on. The danger, of course, is believing that what I think is true or realistic. Largely, I am able to avoid shelving any thoughts as complete so they remain as jig-saw pieces that I like to try to fit into the puzzle of life.

I can guess many people would argue that it is our environment that influences the way we think and perceive (paradoxically) our environment. I suppose we could look at a picture of a scenic place while trapped in a cave and attribute different thoughts to the environment in the picture, to if we saw the same picturesque scene in a picture when we are lounging on a beautiful yacht moored in a magnificent tropical bay. I suppose, then, we might choose different words in our conversation. In the cave, I suppose the conversation might be about a rescue, so there is a notion of a geographical transition albeit a small distance. On the boat, the conversation may be about lunch or whether to titillate ourselves with a shore visit, or on deciding whether to up-anchor and feel the wind in the sails and the bump and shove of waves.

I listened to the dawn chorus this morning and was glad that it is now Spring in the UK. Some of the migratory birds have come back and are claiming their place with their loud voices. It made me feel lighter and better able to face the little problems that we all trip over in Winter when the sounds are different. I thought about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Well, I remembered the words 'Sapir-Whorf' and remembered their hypothesis is about language and environment and perception. Each of the birds is speaking its own language, which although I can't understand it, I do understand from what wildlife people say, is a shout that says 'I am here. This is my place. Find your own. I might fight you.' Of course, none of them are a threat to me because, although dinosaurs they may be, they are not big enough to hurt me, by themselves. 

I initially thought that it is the cadence as well as the sound in a language that makes me feel or perceive my environment differently. If I never understand any French words and no German words and I heard them in precisely the same environment would I perceive the environment differently? I rather think I would. 

I have long been fascinated with how people speak, and by extension how I speak. With all the love and respect I can give to the Germans I much prefer the sound of the French accent and the less staccato word formation. It is to my ears. I think like the German language, my speech, although it is English, is sort of German. My speech is functional. We only have to go back and remember that I bought a thesaurus to assist me in ramming my point across. It never entered my head to entertain someone in conversation back then. If I had bought a book on love, as well as the thesaurus, my language today would be entirely different. The intent then, had I have bought both books would have indicated that I was keen to be focused on becoming a good conversationalist. 

I have no idea what I would have done with a book on love and a thesaurus. It would only take a mean streak and, ironically, I might have become a con artist; a manipulator of people. 

In hindsight, I should have bought more than just a thesaurus. I should have made my speech interesting and compelling. 'Ah! Now you can hear what I am saying, because you like the sounds and the feelings that the words invoke in you.' It never happened though, because I wasn't interested in you or anyone, including my own health.

Languid - 

The Cambridge Dictionary online gives this: 'Languid means moving or speaking slowly with little energy, often in an attractive way.

Merriam Webster online gives this: 'The meaning of languid is drooping or flagging from, or as if from, exhaustion.'