Here we are, a word of two flat feet:
Platform.
Oh, but a platform should be a leap, a cry of romance and promise (or bitter parting, or edge-of-adventure); an incarnation of the mystery of Somewhere Else.
Platform.
Oh dear. It calls up the glazed-eyed glumness of the suited commuter, of leaves-on-the-line, of the heavy hand of an Invisible Contoller.
Platform: a place designed to make lingering as uncomfortable as possible...
...or is that just an accident?
Word Not To Use Today: platform. This word comes from the French platforme, from plat, which means flat, and forme, which means layout.
These days it means something else entirely! It's what WRITERS are supposed to have and it means: a blog, a twitter and Facebook account and so on...."Do you have a platform?" publishers say....
ReplyDeleteIn football, having a platform to build on is what managers say when their completely useless team has* finally got a point.
ReplyDeleteBut I think train platforms are fun, romantic and exciting. A wide variation of people in one small space. Brief encounters. Millions of incidents every day. Even when they're not platforms anymore, they still have a history.
*Yes, I used the singular 'has' with the word team.