(no subject)

[aliaspseudonym]

Pernicious is a deceptive word.  It looks too plain, to innocent; it ought to have a 'D' in it, at least, or an 'X'.  Death, destruction, toxic, even lethal has a hissing sound to it, like the little bit of air being push out of a needle, like a lethal injection.  Fatal and mortal invoke the terrible inevitability of the approaching darkness.  Other killing words more gory, more descriptive; murder, slaughter, slay.  'Kill' itself is a word both sharp and hard, like a knife.  Pernicious, though, starts with a 'P'. 'P' is a good letter, a trustworthy one; it begins pro- and pre-.  Pain has a 'P' but pain is a needful thing, if an unpleasant one.  Pernicious most often describes the course of a disease, generally leading to an unpleasant death.  Try something for me: type pernicious into the input box on Wikipedia and see where it takes you.

What does this have to do with anything?  Nothing at all.  Mere philology.   This is the sort of thing I end up thinking about when I write essays.