For Want of a Better Word
I was jolted out of solving the Times Sunday crossword by a car commercial claiming that the vehicle in question is not only more stylish and fuel efficient than others but also “funner.”
In the puzzle, I had just been compelled to answer the clue “less sophisticated” with the word “naiver.” They made me do it, honest. The crossing words would have it no other way.
Naiver shouldn’t be a word, but it is. You could conceivably make a case for funner, but not unless you’re just funning someone, and even then not as a comparative adjective. Whatever you do, don’t buy that car.
We can only hope the national networks and the New York Times don’t get any unsophisticateder nor the dictionaries any undiscriminatinger, but the trend is not our friend.