Charlotte Latvala: Let's not 'normalize' disrespect of the English language

Do you ever feel haunted by a word? Strike that. A phrase?

Maybe it’s something that’s been floating around the zeitgeist for a while, and for no apparent reason, suddenly gains momentum and is on everyone’s lips? And for the life of you, you can’t figure out why it caught on, or when it will go away, or why it irritates the heck out of you?

And I’m not talking about phrases like “path of totality,” which I had never even heard before last week’s eclipse frenzy. (And I’m guessing, won’t hear again in my lifetime. Then again, I’m not an astronomy buff. Although I do think “path of totality” has a heavy metal or maybe prog rock ring to it. Like a Judas Priest album from 1980. Or maybe Triumph? Kansas?)

Anyway.

Maybe it’s time to normalize naming imaginary classic rock albums after astronomical terms.

You see what I did there?

This is the point where, if this column were a movie, the film would start to rewind and the sound of a needle dragging over an album would screech in your ears. (Of course, it’s a newspaper column and there’s no sound and I probably lost three-quarters of you when you realized this was going to be a grammar rant.)

“You see what I did there” is bad enough. But “normalize” is worse.

First, because taking a perfectly innocent noun or adjective and thumping “ize” onto the end to turn it into a weak verb is an insult to the English language, that beautiful fabric sewn by William Shakespeare and Jane Austen and T.S. Eliot.

Legitimize. Theorize. Incentivize. It’s government-ese, it’s awkward on the tongue, and it’s just plain ugly.

Second, because it’s dumb. Maybe a little bit lazy. People are using “let’s normalize blank” to talk about something that most everyone already likes to do, something that’s perfectly ordinary behavior.

“Let’s normalize eating chocolate ice cream with pretzels.”

“Let’s normalize letting your kids crawl into bed with you at 2 a.m.”

“Let’s normalize driving around the block 10 times and then giving up and parking half a mile away from the restaurant because you haven’t successfully parallel parked since you passed your driving test and even that was on the third try in your mom’s Dodge Aspen.”

You see what I mean?

A phrase catches on – maybe it’s because of a TikTok mom’s rant or a Taylor Swift song – and suddenly it’s seeping into everyday language.

“Normalize” is the new “fur baby”. (And yes, that gagging noise was the sound of me writing those awful words. “Pet parent” is nudging at my brain, waiting to send me completely over the edge, but I’ll save that for another day.)

And yes, I know that language is malleable, and ever-changing, and fluid. It’s always been that way, and will continue to be that way. But have a little respect for our mother tongue.

Don’t normalize “normalize.”

Charlotte is a columnist for The Times. You can reach her at charlottelatvala@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Latvala: Let's not 'normalize' disrespect of the English language