“Fervency Is Not a Word, Rand”
Do you ever feel a pang of regret when a certain memory flits across your mind? I won’t begin to share all my examples—I typically take them to the Lord alone. But here’s one. And don’t laugh.
Once upon a time, I was a counselor at the Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center. And the humble servants there asked us teenage counselors at the end of the summer to feel free to write anonymous comments on a legal pad about anything we’d like to see change the next time around. I can’t remember what others wrote or whether I was supposed to look at.
What I remember is that I chose that opportunity to remonstrate with one of the best speakers there about his word choice. I actually did have theological questions I could have taken the time to express, but I was more concerned to enforce the standards of English pedantry. I wrote the following,
“Fervency” is not a word, Rand!
The next summer I came back and he used it again, just like he had the previous summer. And then, unmistakably, he corrected himself and said “fervor.”
One 19-year-old in the room sat back satisfied. I had done my duty on behalf of all my fellow word mavens. One more person had, for his own good, submitted to our principles. Some day perhaps we would rid the English-speaking world of all incorrect speech and writing. The pigs flying overhead would salute us, and the Millennium would commence.
So I was once exactly the person I now so gently complain about: someone who simply didn’t get it. I had been told by someone I trusted (who sometimes reads this blog…) that “fervor” was a word and “fervency” was not. The bright light of reason, however, never dawned upon my mind. I never thought to ask, “How does he know?”
How can anyone know that what a clearly very competent English speaker says is, somehow, not English? I understood him perfectly. So did every maven in the room. Why can’t he say it? Why isn’t it a word?
Let me mark it down for the record: fervency is a word. An English word. A fine one anyone is allowed to use whenever they (!) want. As best I can tell, it was more than once in its history considered preferable to fervor. That it is not now (as best I can tell) may be due to overzealous teenagers who think they know The Truth About Words and aren’t afraid to try to cow their betters into complying.
I, hereby, absolve myself of guilt. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I say this with both fervency and fervor, because I can’t tell you how many times this little story has embarrassed me without anyone else knowing what thirteen-year-old memories were causing that look to flit across my face. Now maybe those memories will leave me alone. The “Linguistics” category on this blog should be more than sufficient for my penance.
Congratulations, Greenville!
My humble home town makes the front page of the New York Times! That home looks like it’s in Dellwood—that’s my best guess. Not a lot of Newt fans in West Greenville, I don’t think… Or beach cruisers.
Some Positive Peer Pressure For Our Children, Or, Is It Wrong to Pray for Toddler-Onset Narcolepsy?
Two possible captions for this image:
- My wife would do this if she could.
- My wife would do this if only our children would.
Happy Belated Birth Announcement
When you go from zero kids to one, Daddy still gets extra time for blogging because the newborn needs to be bounced to sleep every night while Mommy rests.
But when you go from one to two, there’s no time for that. Or anything. Even finishing this senten
So I’m sorry this is so late! (But you both knew about this already, right?)
Here are some more pictures:
The Pastor and His Technology
My friend Dr. Bob Gonzales is the Academic Dean at Reformed Baptist Seminary, whose upstate SC modules meet down the street from my neighborhood. He’s asked me to deliver two little lectures at their upcoming module, and they say “auditors are invited.” I think that means either of you is welcome to join us. Here’s the promo:
Reformed Baptist Seminary is offering a theological module on "Pastoral Theology" on the week of January 23-27 in Taylors, South Carolina. We’ve invited Pastors Bob Selph, Tom Ascol, Gary Hendrix, and Donny Martin to address the nature and various facets of pastoral ministry. We’ve also invited Dr. Mark Ward, an author at BJU Press, to lecture two sessions on "The Pastor and His Technology." Students and auditors are invited.
Good Reads
I’m becoming a big fan of GoodReads. It’s a social network built around one of my major interests—reading—instead of around… around… Oh, bother. What is Facebook built around?! Cute toddler antics, I guess—or at least that’s what my friends are most interested in posting and reading.
So I have a GoodReads-related announcement. I haven’t told the 50% of my blog readership who encounters this blog through Google Reader, but I might as well let him in on it now: I have a new page, supplied by a nice GoodReads plug-in, listing out all the books I’ve read in 2011.
I made this page first of all for myself (and before I had GoodReads), because I found I was having a hard time remembering what I read in a given year and I wanted to have at least brief notes summarizing what I gleaned. But I did it for you two, too, my faithful readers. I started this blog because I wanted to be a challenge and encouragement to a narrow slice of people, just like certain seminary friends have been for me. Perhaps you’ll find some good recommendations on the list. The most significant ones have gotten longer reviews.
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