Featured Letter: No, not eschew!

To the Editor:

Ambrose Clancy reports in “Word play,” (Jan. 2) that the word “eschew” is in trouble. 

Lake Superior State University included “eschew” on their annual list of words banished from “the Queen’s English for “Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness” because according to them, “Nobody ever actually says this word out loud, they just write it for filler.” 

Not so.

I often use the word “eschew” out loud, especially when I’m hit with a bad cold and utter it with explosive force three times in quick succession — “eschew! eschew! eschew!” 

But even when in the best of health, I find it helpful to express my intention to abstain from internet chain letters, pre-dawn television and broccoli ice cream, and with all there is that’s worth avoiding, I’m sure I’m not alone.

Let us not eschew eschew!

Yvonne Korshak Ruben