Bob Maistros

OK, it’s time for me to rush (no, not Rush) back to the defense of the poor, abused English language once again.

My friends, last week I actually heard a White House spokesman (no, I don’t remember which one) stand before the press on TV and praise the “courageousness” of our servicemen and women.

Just take a match to it.

“Courageousness.”

I kid thee not.

When I was growing up, we used to have a perfectly good word for the quality the O-flack was hailing.  We called it “courage.”

But then, “courageousness” falls neatly into the long list of made-up words I hear all the time.

Like “graciousness.”  Which we used to call “grace.”

Or “gratefulness.”  In the old days, I heard it referred to as “gratitude.”

Or “humbleness.”  The character trait formerly known as “humility.”

How about “hopefulness?”  Once upon a time, even before the “Yes-We-Candidate,” we used to talk about “hope.”

But you know what the real sad thing is?  If you go to dictionary.com, you’ll find all these invented forms listed.  And none of them set off my spell check.

Which is enough to drive an English purist such as I to distractedness.

(Gracious.  That didn’t set off my spell check either.  I’m moving on to “surrenderedness.”)

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