Recharge suggests recurrence. Somehow, at this moment, the very word itself is bothering me. Charge is a powerful word. It is a word of action and defiance. It is a word of powerful commerce and imperious command. Recharge is a word of novelty batteries and colloquial convalescence. It bears an unfortunate audiophonic resemblance to the crude epithet of the petulant adolescent and ignorant adult. I will now issue an edict halting the use of this insipidly incestuous ridiculous word. It is banned from my vocabulary, and I recommend you take stock as well and assess its necessity for your verbal constructs. Charge, alone in might and meaning, will suffice to express my thoughts. We use cell phone chargers, not cell phone rechargers. “I charge you once again brave knights; go into the world and fight injustice wherever it may arise.” NOT “I recharge you brave knights . . .” The word is just an excuse for an otherwise pivotal prefix to pad its portfolio. Re- has enough street cred through its compelling transformations. Arrange becomes the sweetly cadenced “rearrange”. “Affirm”, a jutting declaration, gains extra umph when it becomes “reaffirm”. And how can anyone deny the insidious power of the victor to “rewrite” history. The lackadaisical sloughing off of the end of charge is enigmatic when the word stands solo. But enter re- and the proud horse has died and is now being beaten. Neigh, I say nay. God bless the words we use, and God forgive us for the paltry playmates of language that do nothing but scratch up a perfectly good sentence. I say charge, and charge again. But I wish to never hear of the Recharge of the Light Brigade.
The Lions' Den 