This month’s word is: Temerarious
Temerarious (tem-uh-rair-ee-uhs), adjective.
It means recklessly daring or rash.
Example:
Simon was renowned for his rather temerarious approach to dating.
Or:
Major Jones reprimanded the temerarious priest and warned him against repeating his outburst.
One of the key purposes of business writing is to write in a way that reinforces your brand. It’s also one of the main areas where much business writing often fails. If your brand is about dynamism, energy and modern thinking, your writing needs to support that. So that means using appropriate language, tone and structure.
We were recently working on a recruitment brochure for a major professional services firm. Being a recruitment brochure, the firm wanted to suggest energy, innovation, friendliness and approachability. But one of the main contributors insisted on using words like hence, thus and amongst. Fine words in themselves, but ones that jarred with the firm’s branding message.
Words like hence, thus, amongst and whilst, have a whiff of old-fashioned formality, of stuffiness and of, well, naffness. It’s one of the reasons why most newspapers rarely use them, preferring while to whilst, among to amongst, and just avoiding hence and thus altogether.
You should do the same. Unless, of course, you’re deliberately looking to suggest old-fashioned fustiness and 1950s propriety. In which case, good luck.