… In Praise of One Beat Words | BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Short words are honed to work fast. Why? Most hail from the harsh north, where each breath is hard won. Blunt like chipped tools. Tough to make it through dark, cold nights. Not like the tongues from the warm south, born of sun filled days, where time stretched out with ease, no rush! and each sound led us down a long, slow path that seemed to have no end.
I’m not sure I would ever set out to use only one beat words, but I have long appreciated Mark Twain’s advice: “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” I should add, though, that this essay by Linda Button is virtuosic.
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