Happifying? Real WT quote, or are we joking

designs

Undercover-

Wipe that smile off your face we know what you've been up to, you happifier you....

The word happifying is strange to the ear, but it is a valid English word. It entered general usage about 1780 and was common through the 1920s. It is an uncommon usage today and well on its way to being considered archaic. It appears in a significant number of late 19th Century theological books. So at least someone back there in New York has been reading something other than their own cra.. umm stuff.

doubtful

I don't mean to digress..but besides lexical absurdities like "happifying", I've also always been repulsed by the contrived...archaic expressions and writing style of the watchtower publications..Reading a Watchtower in English makes me feel like I'm listening to a kool-aid drinking old man from the 1920s.

I especially can't stand when they begin a sentence with the word "Why".

Example: "Why, masturbators may even seek out other boys to play with and become raving homosexuals."

NOBODY talks like that anymore! Nobody under the age of 70 begins such a sentence with the word "why"! In today's language, why is used exclusively in the interrogative sense. It's a word that indicates a question.

Another feature I cannot stand (along with dozens of others no doubt) is the use of suggestive, rhetorical questions designed to manipulate the reader at the conclusion of a paragraph or article.

"Are we not thrilled at the prospect of 'reaching over to Macedonia' and moving to a Malaria plagued third world country so as to have a part in the fullfillment of Jesus' words at Matthew 24..."?

Why in the hell do the Watchtower writers insist on maintaining this archaic writing standard and canned language?

saltyoldlady

Another word the WTS invented - at least it seems to me they invented it - is "upbuilding." When I first came in it used to drive me crazy every time they used it and they use it a lot. In my day and age which obviously is long long ago when they started sentences with "why" the terminology was to build up - never upbuild.

So that being said I will now be happified and upbuilt. I remember when that word happified appeared in the mags and couldn't believe my own eyes either. But then I get upset when my grandchildren say "he did good" instead of using the adverb "well." Over the years I never did find a WT speaker that used well instead of the adjective good. I concluded they didn't know the difference between adjectives and adverbs.

Maybe this caused me to "lose faith" in the outfit. Supposedly people who read the Bible often will have better english and grammar. But reading the NWT doesn't help. I find myself constantly rewording their sentence construction as I try to memorize passages. And I am no "great shakes" when it comes to english grammar or punctuation either. I just like using dashes for everything. LOL

So now I will be happified as I am well upbuilt (or maybe I should say upbuilt goodly!)

MrMonroe

District conventions, of course, are opportunities for us to find happyifying experiences, be spiritually upbuilt and most of all to find the material there so encouraging. At post-DC debriefing meetings a month or so afterwards, it was always good to be the first to put your hand up to say you were so encouraged. Walking out the door, thinking about the unmade beds and piles of breakfast dishes awaiting us at home because we had to race to the convention and save our seats in the morning, we would smile and say how encouraging and upbuilding the whole thing was.

We just hoped no one asked us what the highlight was.

I remember some dickhead elder giving a talk from the platform -- complete with props!! -- about the benefit of spiritual binoculars that allowed us to see the dangers far ahead.

What about Happysturbating?

Happifying? Real WT quote, or are we joking -

designs

Old Goat

doubtful

saltyoldlady

MrMonroe

agonus

AnneB

sweetmochasista

steve2

punkofnice

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