Hmm. One word or hyphenated?
Current Merriam-Webster shows the word as hyphenated, to mean a sudden
face-first fall.
In word use the hyphen has a way of dissolving – usually over a long
period of time like forest rock giving way to matsutake mushrooms. But that
process can be hurried by constant use.
In my case that applies. It just so happens the “faceplant” has emerged
as my own private injury method. On Thursday, Sept. 29, only two days before my
scheduled half-marathon in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, I managed my second faceplant
in two years. The first one occurred when I faceplanted while walking the dog: one
hand holding a hot coffee, the other the dog leash, and Wham!, I tripped over
Thurber’s back leg and went down chin-first on pavement.
Seven stitches later I went to The Post to work on a Sunday.
Then, on that last Thursday in September, I’m face-first again, this time
while on a final training run before the Oct. 1 race. While on a Prospect Park
trail I was zooming along, feeling no pain, when I tripped on a tree root –
Screw You, Tree Root, my daughter K rejoined – and fell even harder than the
first time: Right on the same spot as I’d injured during the dog-tripping
incident. Then off to the clinic: 12 stitches this time (because the collision
was harder, my teeth opened a wound in the roof of my mouth.)
The upshot? No Bay Ridge Half. And yes, this result in the spelling of “faceplant.”
It’s on my mind so much now that when I close my eyes I see the hyphen dissolving
like Alka-Seltzer in water.
Next: Running for Your Life:
Deep State S--t
2 comments:
I'm fascinated by the way the expression has taken off. Never heard "face-plant" (with a hyphen or without one) in my life until a year or two ago -- and now it's everywhere.
Likewise with the phrase "throw them under a bus."
Anyway, please keep your hands free while running so you can hand-plant instead of face-plant next time you take a fall.
Ha -- hand-plant it is! One has a feeling that this word's hyphen will never dissolve, as handplant connotes something growing on the window ledge in the "Little Shop of Horrors!"
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