On Language

Mr. Webster defines the word "reproach" as an expression of rebuke or disapproval. It seems to have largely disappeared from common or day-to-day English yet I've heard it more here in France than just about any other English word. I'm basing this fact largely on the commonality of the French word "reproche" from which our own word derives. So, when they (French) need a word or phrase in English for where they would use the word "reproche" en Francais, they naturally use "reproach."
This struck me the other day as a fairly underutilized word in the English language. Instead of saying "he reproached me" a more superfluous and not entirely accurate "he got mad at me" would be used or perhaps the slightly more accurate yet just as superfluous "he got on to me." Perhaps I am being selective in my memory but I rarely hear (or have heard) the word "reproach" come out of a native English speaker's mouth. This isn't an "outrage" to me; I don't want to lead a petition to resurrect "reproach." It is just interesting how a person's perception of a "reproach" is that off an attack ("He got mad at me") when in reality there was just disapproval. The vagaries of language intrigue me.
Coincidentally enough, eight hours after writing this and without my prompting, McCall expressed her amazement at the ability of her non-native friends' ability to always use the exactly right English word for the situation/sentence when she or other native speakers would have used a, in her words, "more casual or laid-back expression." This of course spurred me to think of the situation in the opposite light: as a "student" of French. I'm being to taught the proper word(s)(just as they were taught for English) so it seems logical to have the precisely correct wording in situations, whereas the native French speaker might slough off with something casual or off the cuff.
And now, with all this examined/said I will conclude with the fact that I'm going to start peppering my speech with "reproach." Maybe I will start that petition.