Weigh your words, please

The uses of memorable writing (June 30^th 2002)
Over a long period the people who use the language fashion it, syntax, vocabulary and idiom. ‘Ordinary people without licence,’ cautions Philip Howard, ‘will carry on inventing words and idioms.'

Of pedants, prayer & curses (June 23^rd 2002)
We are never far away from 'prayer' or 'curse'. 'Precari' (to pray, beg) is also the stem for 'precarious' and 'imprecate'.

Of parables and perception (June 16^th 2002)
On a mundane level, the Parable of the Sower and the Seed highlights all the hurdles to effective communication.

Of the harsh and the hateful (June 9^th 2002)
‘Abominate’ and ‘execrate’ are not familiar words at all but formal ones. ‘Abominable’, however, is used informally for ‘very unpleasant’. 

Of vagueness, vagaries & vagrancy (June 2^nd 2002)
Vagueness, where it is not deliberate, indicates lack of understanding or a wandering mind. The word is derived from the French 'vaguer', Latin 'vagari' (from 'vagus', roaming).

The wit of persuasion (May 26^th 2002)
One can also wheedle a person into doing something or into good temper.

Of scapegoats and ringmasters (May 19^th 2002)
The term, 'scapegoat', can be traced to the Old Testament, in particular to the Third Book of Moses (Leviticus, Chapter 16)

The primrose path & double strife (May 12^th 2002)
Many striking phrases, memorable either for their vividness or for their evocative quality, have come to us from Shakespeare or from the Bible and are being used to advantage even by those who may not be aware of their origin.

The Italian influence (May 05^th 2002)
One Italian word that has been milked dry by newspaper hacks is ‘fiasco’ (an ignominious failure).

Of Gorgons, mustang and tomahawk (April 28^th 2002)
Cutting a caper or a sorry figure is not an unfamiliar occurrence.

A digression on obsolescence (April 20^th 2002)
A living language is always undergoing change.

Making sense of the world of words (April 14^th 2002)
Care in word selection can be overdone so that spontaneity of expression is lost. ‘In human discourse, infinitely varied as it is, so much must ever depend on “who” speaks to “whom”, in what mood and upon what occasion’.

Of bravado and browbeating (April 7^th 2002)
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines ‘bravado’ as ‘usually unnecessary or false display of boldness’.

Of kowtow and its variants (March 31^st 2002)
Do you know that an Englishman's refusal to kowtow to the Chinese authorities in 1860 is celebrated in a now-forgotten poem...

Staid and the stodgy (March 24^th 2002)
Leader writers, though bound by newspaper deadlines, have more room for manoeuvre, unlike the common hacks.

An entertaining exercise (March 17^th 2002)
Do you know that ‘harass’, which came into the language from the French ‘harasser’, is related to ...

Of eloquence, loquacity & obloquy (March 09^th 2002)
We have only to look up words such as ‘retain’, ‘maintain’, ’sustain’, ‘obtain’, ‘tenant’, ‘tenor’ and ‘tenacious’ to find out for ourselves that they are all related to the Latin ‘tenere’ (hold/keep).

Of envy and Comstockery (March 03^rd 2002)
It is 'the stamp of custom alone that gives words their value or circulation'.

Of plodders and painful memories (February 24^th 2002)
When we describe someone or something as 'a real pain' in informal speech, we mean that the person or thing is annoying or boring.

Of happiness and suffering (February 17^th 2002)
Generations of critics have been trying to explain (or explain away) the import of the last words of Hazlitt, who was considered a 'difficult person'.

Of tumours, tumult & tumescence (February 10^th 2002)
The expression 'tumours of the mind' rings a bell. 'Tumid prose', according to the Collins Dictionary, is prose...

Is tourism in a good seam? (February 3^rd 2002)
When used figuratively, ‘seamy’ signifies the ugly and the unpleasant. There is thus a seamy side to the careers of hundreds of cine artistes....

Words & fossilized prejudices (January 29^th 2002)
Expressions like ‘disoriented’ and ‘a left-handed compliment’ echo our age-old prejudices and beliefs.

Of patina, peon and titillation (January 20^th 2002)
Can goodness tire you? At least its television brands can, and often, do so. One editorial writer calls it 'cloying goodness'.

All about elbow grease! (January 13^th 2002)
The telling phrase, describing Thackeray's want of energy and his temptation to every form of go-as-you-please - illustrates the power of slang-and its danger.

Of look-alikes and gift horses (January 6^th 2002)
I wonder whether the expression ‘paint oneself into a corner’ has become a dead metaphor: I did not find it listed in several well-known dictionaries. Someone may be able correct me and enlighten me on its origin.

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