{"id":1816,"date":"2022-10-18T10:49:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T14:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2022-10-18T10:55:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T14:55:21","slug":"word-of-the-week-diligent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2022\/10\/18\/word-of-the-week-diligent\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Week! Diligent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/10\/diligent.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1817\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/10\/diligent-300x152.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"389\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/10\/diligent-300x152.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/10\/diligent-768x390.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/files\/2022\/10\/diligent.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 389px) 100vw, 389px\" \/><\/a>Just today I thanked a student for being so diligent. Then I wondered when she may have last heard that word. The word seems, like diligence itself, to have fallen out of favor in our <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2018\/07\/30\/word-of-the-week-harum-scarum\/\">harum-scarum<\/a> culture.<\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s term is OLD. Look at<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oed.com\/view\/Entry\/52787?result=1&amp;rskey=P2zEVl&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> the OED&#8217;s entry<\/a>, with a first recorded use of 1340. The Latin roots of our word need no lengthy explication. What strikes me as fascinating involves the rather small number of definitions: like the virtue signified, the word for it remains industriously, assiduously, painstakingly, on a single path.\u00a0 I got to use a few synonyms in that sentence, too.<\/p>\n<p>Now don&#8217;t mistake being diligent for being brilliant. Sometimes to pays to &#8220;work smarter,&#8221; as a cliche goes. But attention to details never hurts.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, consider being diligent before using &#8220;super,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2016\/10\/27\/a-new-super-bad-writing-habit\/\">a word I detest<\/a> in writing and tolerate with a cringe in speech. Yes, cringe. I will lose that battle. Why not avoid &#8220;he worked super hard&#8221; and instead use &#8220;he worked diligently&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>Because: rushed, careless, harum-scarum. And there I rest my case as diligently as a I can.<\/p>\n<p>Nominate a word by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n<p>See all of our Metaphors of the Month\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/metaphor-of-the-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>\u00a0and Words of the Week\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/tag\/word-of-the-week\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/vblibrary\/6968419647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enokson from Flicker<\/a>. I keep bee-hives and these creatures exemplify diligence.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just today I thanked a student for being so diligent. Then I wondered when she may have last heard that word. The word seems, like diligence itself, to have fallen out of favor in our harum-scarum culture. This week&#8217;s term is OLD. Look at the OED&#8217;s entry, with a first recorded use of 1340. The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/2022\/10\/18\/word-of-the-week-diligent\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Word of the Week! Diligent<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2516,40197],"tags":[2522],"class_list":["post-1816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","category-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcsCNV-ti","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1821,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions\/1821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}