Stragedy

Breaking a bad habit takes more time and energy than most people realize or are willing to dedicate. It is even more the case when one first learns something incorrectly: the way of doing something came wired into the brain a certain way. It remains the way of doing even when one learns better.

I have one friend who has mispronounced one particular word his entire life and nothing can change it. People who know him know what he means. I actually have come up with my own definition for the word because I think the definition deserves a word and this one sounds right.  My friend says “stragedy” instead of “strategy”. Given what he means and what it actually sounds like, I think we should all start using it when our best laid plans go horribly, horribly wrong.

We have all had those times. Despite our best efforts and most sincere planning, we have those events that go awry unexpectedly and never come back under control. We thought we had all the right strategies, but it turned into a tragedy. I think stragedy is the perfect word for such a situation. If Stephen Colbert can coin truthiness and have it become the word of the year, certainly a truly functional word like stragedy has room in the modern lexicon. 

And it saves valuable characters on Twitter.