Sunday Rest: jab. Word Not To Use Today.

 I don't mind the word jab, myself, not even when it's used to mean a medical injection.

However, someone in my family objects to it because it sounds violent; and another family member objects to it because it reminds her of the word jam, with its association with red things and mess, and therefore with wounds.

It's quite possible that I just have a really weird family, but I present this information to all friends in The Word Den so we can be sensitive if we feel like it.

Sunday Rest: jab. This is a surprisingly new word to the English of England, first appearing in the 1800s. It is a Scottish form of the word job, in this sense a word used since the 1500s to describe the pecking of birds, and later for any similar action, such as a boxer's punch.