July 14, 2004

Deplane.

Jeremy detests the word "deplane" so much he's starting a sidebar list of words he detests. The list that only has one other word: "linkage." Now that you mention it, I like "deplane." First, you're always happy to be told to deplane. Second, and this is tied to what people who don't like this word don't like, it doesn't fit properly with other constructions of its type: nouns that have become verbs with the help of the prefix "de." To "debone" is to remove the bones from inside of a chicken. To "delouse" is to rid a body of lice. But that's what I like about it: it seems like the person is removing the plane from himself, as if the plane were an undesirable attachment to the passengers. That expresses something about the way I feel about planes.

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