The folks at the Concise Oxford English Dictionary announced recently the word "time" is now the most used noun in the English language. Well, duh. I hope they didn't spend too much time trying to figure that out. After all, we use "time" in so many ways; the word itself is timeless, having survived the many tests of time. Time and again, it lends itself to so many expressions and interpretations-offering the flexibility it takes to fit our needs and in a timely manner. So, since I had time to kill I decided to write a piece about time.
The word "time" is in the first sentence out of our mouths each morning. It's time to get up. What time is it? Time to go! And that's just before we get out of bed. Then, after putting in more than a full day's work, after being a veritable time machine, it turns around and gently lets us know "it's time to go to bed."
What a hard worker. Time after time, it's delivered us where we need to be on time, in time or at the same time-always working hard to be a personal timekeeper for so many who depend on it-never asking for time and a half or overtime for the endless hours worked. It's a time-tested, time-saving time piece. It tracks our time shares; schedules our time slot; makes sure we're in the right time zone; and let's us know when we're stuck in a time warp so we don't get behind the times. And if that weren't enough, for the sake of time, it gave us timeframe, time stamp, time card, time lapse, time clock, time sheet, time code and time capsule. Not to mention it's given all of us, at one time or another, the time of our lives. It's even taken responsibility for its actions over time-admitting the time bomb wasn't a great idea-it was just a sign of the times.
It has the only time span that can withstand the test of time because it has no time limits. No wonder the gift of time is so invaluable because it is so intangible and fleeting. Which is why, for the time being, we should do less time consuming and take more time off to enjoy this time-honored noun called Time.
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary list of top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact.
Pat Landaker is a small business consultant and President of the Pat Landaker Agency; she also owns the Think Pink Agency, a resource center and think tank for women career professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs and stay-at-home professionals. www.patlandakeragency.com and www.thinkpinkagency.com