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Created: August 7, 2003
Latest Update: August 7, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

It's on the Tip of My Tongue

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, August 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This morning I was trying to use a word I couldn't remember. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I was tired, and it was hot. What do you do when this happens?

Well, I knew what the word meant: interchangeable. I was thinking of blue collar workers who are often treated as though they are interchangeable. So . . .

1. I linked over to the Weekly Issue Homepage and scrolled down to the dictionary dialog box.
2. I typed in interchangeable.
3. The word I was searching for didn't show up under the definitions.
4. I typed the word interchangeable in the Thesaurus dialog box over to the right of the page.
5. And there was my word:

   "Synonyms commutable, exchangeable, fungible, interconvertible, substitutable"

   Perhaps you can see why I was searching for fungible. It fit best what I was trying to say. Dollar bills are fungible. Copies of a text book are fungible. They are alike in the main status characteristic for which they are used, the same economic value, the same information. And they are objects. The worker, in the situation I was describing, is fungible, for each worker is capable of performing the desired task in approximately the same way to approximately the same degree of precision.

   Here's where I used the results of my search. Notice tht the first search of the dictionary didn't help me. Don't be discouraged. Try the thesaurus. Ask a friend. And if you're not sure when you find the word, that it's the right one, recheck it in the dictionary. But don't give up. If you don't use it, you lose it.