Word salads.

 From a discussion on Germaine's today.

 I was talking about things I experienced that I don't believe I experienced because I don't believe what I experienced existed.

Is that a word salad or is it too short for a word salad? In fact, what is a word salad?

a mixture of words or phrases that is confused and difficult to understand:

I don't buy it. I have known a lot of word salads that were easy to understand and not at all confusing, but were repetitive and wordy. So, let's try another definition:

More often, word salad describes utterances perceived by others as nonsense—especially when the speaker is trying to make a somewhat serious impression or speak about a serious topic:

Now THAT makes more sense. Take this thread for instance. It may "perceived by others" to be a word salad, while here I am trying to make a somewhat serious impression. 

Now you aren't buying it, right?

Take some of the threads posted on various forums, that are long and wordy, and use oft-repeated phrases, are they explanative, or word salads?

Or if someone takes a topic and addresses with a long clinical analysis full of words and meanings and suggestions, are they word salads?

Has the term word salad become an insult you might want to hurl at someone when you simply don't understand what they are getting at?

Now, take the analogy, of what a salad really is..........

We all know what salad is, right? That might sound like a ridiculous thing to even bother asking, but actually stop and consider for a moment what the definition of a salad is. Your first thought probably centers on lettuce, but what then do we make of pasta salad, tuna salad, or those strange Jell-O-based salads of the mid-1900s? None of these dishes contain any lettuce, yet they bear the name "salad" all the same. The more you think about salad, the less clear its meaning becomes, as countless lettuceless varieties come to mind, like chicken salad or fruit salad.

So a word salad can be whatever you make of it? Sounds about right. 

Now your turn! What in your estimation is a word salad? Did I just present one here?




Do we know any users on here that use word salads? Besides myself? 



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