I need a word, please.

[jeneralist]

When do we want to lose something?

There are many times we might want to get rid of something. We can talk about getting rid of junk, cleaning out our closets, getting past old ways of thought. "Losing" is not used for these examples. We lose football games, we lose $10 that fell out a hole in our pockets, we can even lose hope. "Losing" is bad.

Why, then, do we speak of losing weight?

I'm looking for a word or phrase that refers to intentionally lessening one's mass, that makes it sound like a good thing to do. "Shedding" a few pounds is close, but I know you can come up with something better.

Donating extra carbon to the global Goodwill?

Comments

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's what you meant, but what you wrote has me thinking about the difference between "losing" weight and "loosing" weight. I've got a mental image of walking to the gate of my fenced-in yard with a wild Fat Beast, 20 pounds growling wild animal, in a cage. (In my imagination, it sort of looks like an injured and recovered sloth, with elements of a small, overfed orangutan.) I open the cage door and shout to the critter, "Go away! Be free!" to get it to return to the wild.

[persipone.livejournal.com]

Heh. Actually, it's just that I can't spell!