As a life-long word nerd, I always get a twinge of irritation when someone describes events like the San Bernardino attacks as “tragedy.” Because the classical definition of tragedy is a story in which the eventual victim brings about his or her own downfall, through hubris or arrogance or egomania or plain bad luck.

I realize “tragedy” has turned into a synonym for “atrocity,” but when people use it to describe an event like San Bernardino it just feels wrong to me because those people did NOT bring this on themselves.

My name is Charles and I’m a word nerd.