I was walking with a client to a restaurant for dinner when she pointed at a large, grassy field in the park and said, “I love this green space.”
“You mean that field?” I asked.
I hate words like “green space,” which seek to elevate something that already has a perfectly good name.
As I’m fond of saying:
“Not every thing needs to be a thing.”
This is a good example of that sentiment.
A green space is defined as “an area of grass, trees, or other vegetation set apart for recreational or aesthetic purposes in an otherwise urban environment.”
So a park. Maybe a public garden if you want to be a fancy pants, but either way, we have a name for this thing, and it’s not green space.
Some other examples of this foolishness include:
Pre-owned vehicle → Used car
Rightsizing → Laying off employees
Experiential learning environment → Classroom
Wellness journey → Exercising
And my least favorite of all:
“Negative patient outcome” → Death
