Between forgotten words and wrong vocabulary. We no longer know Italian

The right term exists, but it is not always at hand. In three books, an invitation to understand the value of each irreplaceable word. Because counteracting the disappearance of the lexicon means offering, especially to young people, the opportunity to open up thinking

In a time in which language tends to become impoverished, gradually but inexorably proceeding towards flattening, the reduction of its density, not to mention the disappearance of entire groups of words, it is comforting, as well as pleasant, to come across publications that arise with the goal of guarding the words. In our tireless pursuit of this subject we recently had occasion to browse The oblivion. Dictionary of Lost Words (Franco Cesati Editore, 2016), a volume – original both in idea and in structure – which fixes on paper two thousand words of rare use, or The book of otherwise lost words (Rizzoli, 2020), in which Sabrina D’Alessandro saves about three hundred of the most unknown terms, and the volume by Massimo Arcangeli entitled Without words. Small dictionary to save our language (The Assayer, 2020). Texts that they offer us a submerged treasure capable of highlighting the potential of a language, such as ours, without equal in terms of refinement, precision, ability to accurately grasp sensations, qualities, phenomena of the reality that surrounds us in detail. Not only external things such as objects and actions but, far more important, what is inside us: moods, feelings, emotions. Because, as Umberto Galimberti writes, “having few words means having less ability to express emotions and less possibilities to elaborate a thought. (…) With the impoverishment of language, which will grow more and more, we also lose our thoughts because no one can think of a thing that does not correspond to a word. We must not think that the word is a means of expressing a thought: the word is the condition of thought (…). So I would say to young people starting out on life: don’t lose your words, because if you lose your words, you lose your thoughts!”.