THERE are words we overuse and words we use incorrectly to add meaning to an event or situation.

Whether via social media, traditional media, or in our conversations and discussions, we tend to exaggerate or use words out of context usually because we have heard or read it misused before.

Irony, nearly always confused with coincidence, oxymoron, and peruse spring to mind along with amazing, terrific, incredible, ultimate, literally, unique, surreal, and awesomesuperlatives that have all been overused in popular culture and taken on an adapted meaning as a result.

It has always galled me that Alanis Morissette’s smash hit of the 1990’s, Ironic, contains no examples of irony at all.

“Rain on your wedding day” isn’t great, particularly for the photographer, but unless rain signifies impending divorce, ironic it is not. And if I win Powerball next Thursday and pass away the next day that’s not ironic although it would be bloody annoying…

Then there are more serious words like justice, enormity, travesty, and atrocity, which are used to describe events that they are not.

Yet the word that troubles me most is tragedy. By example, it is not a tragedy when an AFL player is suspended by the tribunal and declared ineligible for the league’s best and fairest, the Brownlow Medal.

It’s disappointing, but with the opportunity to appeal the tribunal’s decision, it’s as far from a tragedy as it gets.

The Collins English Dictionary defines tragedy as:

“a very sad event or situation, especially one involving death or suffering”, and adds to that definition with, “a play about death or suffering with a sad end, or this type of play generally”.

When we think of the origins of the word tragedy, an educated guess would suggest the Greek.

Oregon State University offers an insightful yet somewhat humorous etymology:

“The word ‘tragedy’ comes from the Greek “he-goat” and aeidein = ‘to sing” – literally, ‘the song of a goat.’

Scholars aren’t sure exactly why, but they have a couple theories:

1. In ancient Athens, where tragedy was first performed on stage.

Dionysus, the Greek god to whom the plays were dedicated, was associated with satyrs–a sort of mythological goat.

2. Goats may have been sacrificed during the performance of tragedies in ancient Athens.

3. A goat might have been the prize for writing a winning tragedy.

“In spite of this mystery, though, we’re stuck with the word ‘tragedy’ to refer to a narrative arc in which things start out in order and end in disarray.”

Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and the most famous of all, the Englishman, William Shakespeare are two who defined the tragedy genre.

Sophocles, known as a tragedian, most famous work Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) is a tragic figure who kills his father (unknown to him) in an altercation to rid the town of a plague and then unwittingly marries his mother, believing he was adopted.

His mother and wife commit suicide before King Oedipus blinds himself because he does not wish to view his daughters.

The audience understands the main character is a figure whose decision making is clouded by a tragic flawdestructive pride, which will lead to his downfall.

“Pride breeds the tyrant violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich with ruin-clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss-sheer doom!” the Chorus instructs.

Hamlet, Shakespeare’s masterpiece, is one of the most quoted from the tragedy genre.

Hamlet’s flaws, self-doubt and procrastination, lead to this hero’s tragic downfall.

When he should move to avenge the murder of his father, poisoned by his brother Claudius, he fails to act.

“I must be cruel only to be kind; thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”

And; “Conscience doth make cowards of us all,” Hamlet tells us.

Language matters, yet it is often misconstrued because we lack the time or willingness to learn its etymologythe history of a word. We often become loose with meaning and fall into the trap of repeating the latest word or phrase we have heard to describe current events.

The business and leadership world has a lot to answer for with words and phrases like synergy, close the loop, low-hanging fruit, bandwidth, holistic, alignment, and unpack taking on different meanings; adapted to behaviours found in the workplace.

Ernest Hemmingway, driven by a quest for the perfect sentence, was the master of using short sentences to convey concise meaning. In arguably his greatest work, For Whom the Bell Tolls, he wrote:

“I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.”

Hemingway broke the rules to ensure his writing was to the point.

Atrocities are committed by war criminals, violent offenders, and terrorists.

Tragic events are shaped by sorrow and melancholia and a sense of desperation.

I ‘anxiously’ attempt to avoid the latest buzzword no matter how difficult the ‘journey…’