FRED OWENS writes:

“We’re pregnant.” This might not bother anyone else too much, but I’m a writer, and I live and die by my words — which is why, when I overheard that phrase the other day at the cafe, I wanted to get up and choke the fellow.

He said, “We’re pregnant.” I wanted to say the hell you are.

You are not and never will be.

I know that the intention behind this new usage is to include the male parent in the process — like he was actually doing some of the work, which he is not. Like he would know what it is like, which will never happen. Famously, at least up to the present, you were either pregnant or you were not. It was a word with one of those rare precise meanings in the English language.

Now it’s “we’re pregnant.” I suppose we are all pregnant. Is it something like indigestion? As a shared experience, we are all included now, and the world has become a better place.

This is the kind of spurious “improvement” that gives the left a bad name. Changing the meaning of words is a waste of energy and can even be destructive. We are not pregnant.

 Mr. Owens also reports on the latest farm news from California at his blog Frog Hospital.

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