Anything but a [No, Nahi, Never, Nein, Non, Naah]... aargh

Rewind
It all started one dull day, deep in the jungles of Africa, when two primitive men (who had just learnt how to utter words instead of the click-clack sounds that they were accustomed to) had gone hunting.

*assuming readers are leaning forward in interest*

Well, it so happened that Man 1 missed his aim and the poison-tipped arrow whizzed past Man 2's ears. That's when Man 2 said "owwww" instead of the customary "ouch". Both looked at each other in bewilderment, this word was unfamiliar, yet at the same time they had no trouble understanding what was meant to be conveyed. Needless to say, at that precise moment, the prevailing linguistic foundations were shaken, and synonyms were born.

*readers puzzled, ok, ok, who cares except a certain C. Darwin, what is she getting at anyway*

Fast-forward to the present day
Yours truly is desperately flicking through the pages of the latest bestseller "How To Say No When You Want To Say No"

Thanks to a couple of squint-eyed cave-men [$%#!@$%blistering barnacles, lily-livered bandicoots...err.. Cro-Magnon$%#!@$%], we have a 100 different ways of saying basically the same thing, the degrees of impact varying though.
Take for example the act of refusing; you could start off with "I am so sorry", and move on to "I would have loved to", or a "Yes, I understand, but", anything and everything but a plain simple "NO".

What set this post off:
Recent attempts at being diplomatic, it is after all the order of the day. If you gotta survive, you gotta be extra careful when using the "N" word.

Current Music: It iS YoU i HavE LoveD - OST Shrek (nice lyrics)