Nuts and Bolts: commoratio.

'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.'

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Commoratio (which isn't, despite its name, a naval rank distinguishable by lampshade-sized epaulettes) is all around us. Really, it's all over the place. It surrounds us. You'll find it all the time in newspapers, and constantly in speech - and, particularly, in speeches.

Commoratio is so all-pervading that it's the easiest thing to come up with an example that shows you how it works and how it may appear in our language.

In fact there's so much commoratio about that thinking up examples is straightforward, simple, and the work of a moment.

As you may have guessed by now, commoratio is the repetition of an idea, saying it again and again, and of course this is a jolly effective way of getting things to penetrate people's thick heads.

In fact it's so effective, and such a good tool of communication, that we use commoratio frequently and often. 

That makes us rather clever, don't you think?

Thing To Use Today: commoratio. This word comes from the Latin word for dwelling.