Richness of language

I am bothered that people think it's appropriate to deface signs. I noticed several instances in a recent visit to Great Basin National Park - one example is shown in the first attached photo. Apparently, someone was unhappy with the word "grotesque" and decided it needed to be scratched out. They didn't think the trees had "grotesque beauty."

For someone to feel so strongly opposed to using that word that they would undertake to "censor" it, I assume they either thought the word was offensive and inappropriate for a public setting (obscene or vulgar), or else they personally and strongly disagreed with using it to describe the trees.

These are definitions for that adjective from some online dictionaries:

- comically or repulsively ugly or distorted.

- odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.

- strange and unpleasant, especially in a silly or slightly frightening way.

I don’t see anything inherently offensive in any of those definitions, so unless someone had their own (inaccurate) definition of the word, the rationale for defacing it must disagreement with applying it to the trees. I will post a few additional photos so that readers can decide for themselves if they consider these to have “grotesque beauty” based on the definitions!

Words are fascinating. Most of us don’t take the time very often to look up nuances of meaning in a dictionary. We have our own personal definition or sense of meaning based on our experience with a word – not always necessarily accurate. But meanings can evolve or change over time as they are used by speakers of a language. The languages themselves are living, dynamic things.

It’s interesting to consider synonyms for a word, to see how the subtleties of meaning differ among the options. The definitions above include many synonyms for "grotesque," such as ugly, distorted, odd, bizarre, strange, or unpleasant. But grotesque carries the particular subtlety of an appearance that is disturbing or unsettling to the viewer.

When studying foreign languages, you sometimes find that some more unusual adjectives or concepts in one language don’t even exist in another. The concept behind the word was unique to the speakers of the language where it was developed. That can add a challenge to the translation of some texts!

While I don’t condone the defacing of public property or the censoring of someone’s word choice, I do #GiveThanks for the amazing richness of language. The more I study and learn, the more fascinated I am at our ability to communicate concepts through the use of words.