I have a problem with words being rendered meaningless due to overuse and misuse…"legend," to name one. These days, absolutely everyone is a legend and absolutely everything is legendary…and we completely ignore the aspect of the word that a "legend" may be a myth or gross exaggeration. Furthermore, everyone these days is an icon and everything is iconic. Earlier this morning, I fed the legendary stray cat in my legendary backyard some iconic canned cat food.
I don't know where this zeal comes from. It's probably the same place that gave us standing ovations for every single guest on most talk shows when they had live audiences.
Which brings us to "definitive," which has now become just another synonym for "great." Over at the Merriam-Webster website, they have this to say…
Some common synonyms of definitive are conclusive, decisive, and determinative. While all these words mean "bringing to an end," definitive applies to what is put forth as final and permanent.
I keep seeing people use that adjective as if it means "excellent." I can't find it again but a few weeks ago on some comic book website, I saw a guy refer to a dozen or so different bodies of work on Batman as all being "definitive." As the line goes in The Princess Bride, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."
That new, wonderful Laurel & Hardy DVD (this one) is advertised as having "the definitive restorations" of the films on it. When I said I had a "teensy-tiny microscopic quibble" with the set, that's what I meant. I think that's the wrong word. Yeah, it's highly unlikely better film elements will ever turn up but technology keeps accomplishing things that we thought were impossible a decade or two ago.
If not — if these are the best versions of these films that ever exist — I'll be satisfied. They look and sound so much better than earlier releases we thought were good enough. I hope nothing I said discourages anyone from buying this set.
