I know, I know. I’ve even said it myself: complaining about language change is as boring as nostalgia and as useless as confessing you’re insecure; it should be taken to the privacy of your room.

Even so, now and then, I can’t resist the urge to pick up the lance and brandish it in threatening manner at an operating windmill.

So yes, there’s evidence even in this very blog that I have defended the double negative. I have tried in my quiet way to allow prejudice and discrimination the full flavor of their definitions. Today I put two other words on this screen.

We all know that synthetic now means not genuine, made of unnatural materials, somehow false. I think we’ll agree that in common parlance plastic has a similar feel.

In fact, I describe my mind as synthetic. And having recently acquired information about neuroplasticity, I respect plastic.

I’m sure I’m not alone in remembering the classic sequence: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. We were taught to come up with a theory, entertain the opposing views, and finally, if successful, combine all the data into wisdom. Synthesis is the putting together of correct thesis/theses, to arrive at the answer if you’re lucky. At the least, you acquire the response that is useful and not contradicted by anything we know. Thesis is from the Greek verb for place and means position in a discussion. Anti-position is obvious and syn-position is the “withing” of positions. Synthetic means put together.

As for plastic, when I grew up there was agreement among the experts that we didn’t grow new brain cells. Once dead, they were gone forever. We had standing unfunny jokes when we drank too much or otherwise indulged, saying goodbye forever to the cells we were killing.

That was incorrect, but I stopped paying attention between college years and about age 55. I missed string theory and I also missed the news that our brains are plastic (or have plasticity); when we lose one path we can grow a new one. The word comes from the Greek verb that means to form, and it’s all about being moldable and impressionable.