World Wide Words -- 09 Aug 08
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Aug 8 09:12:54 UTC 2008
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 599 Saturday 9 August 2008
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Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
http://www.worldwidewords.org US advisory editor: Julane Marx
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Weird Words: Gonfalon.
3. Q&A: Cleft stick.
4. Q&A: Know the ropes.
5. Sic!
A. Subscription information.
B. E-mail contact addresses.
C. Ways to support World Wide Words.
1. Feedback, notes and comments
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TART Tony Sharp commented on its Liverpudlian meaning: "You note
the derogatory use of the female epithet 'tart' and show, properly,
its derivation from 'sweetheart' ('t'art'). However as a Scouser I
can assure you that when we use the term it is simply used to mean
'girl' or 'wife' dressed in any way at all, not overdressed; 'the
tart' usually means 'my wife'. This allows other regional users to
assume Liverpudlians have the same attitude to women as American
Black 'rapsters' who use only the term 'ho'." Alan Harrison notes
it is used in a similarly neutral way around Newcastle-on-Tyne, and
adds, "Nearly forty years ago, my brother told me it seemed to be
used in the same sense in Lichfield. A consequent misunderstanding
between a young lady from Walsall (about nine miles away) and her
boyfriend meant that an altercation ensued."
Several readers pointed out that at least one online compilation of
Cockney rhyming slang gives "Thomas More", meaning "whore", as the
origin, and wondered if this is the true origin of "tom". None of
my general slang dictionaries, nor those specialising in rhyming
slang, have this phrase, and I doubt whether it was ever in actual
use. Patrick Martin notes "mot" as an old term for a prostitute,
which the Oxford English Dictionary says was still in use in 1866,
and wonders if "tom" might be backslang derived from it, as "boy"
became "yob" around the same time. There's no evidence for it.
INCENTIVISE Peter McMenamin was one of several who commented on
this word. "I too cringe along with Columbine at hearing 'incent'
and 'incentivize' but 'motivate' is too broad. One can motivate
with threats, shame, calls to patriotism, and in any number of
other ways that do not involve financial incentives. I have been an
economist for 40 years, but I have yet to encounter a felicitous
single word meaning to motivate through financial incentives."
MORE LAWS Robert Eldred pointed out that at least one of the laws
quoted in previous issues may be a steal from Chisholm's Law of
Human Interaction: "If at any time things seem to be going well,
you've overlooked something." Melissa Ruminski notes that Evans's
Law is strikingly similar to one that's attributed to H G Wells,
"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone
else's draft." But did Wells actually originate it? No quotation
dictionaries I have here include it and though it's widely quoted
in books and online, always attributed to him, I can't find any
instance in which the source is given. I've searched a collection
of Wellsiana, but the quote isn't there.
WADDLE Having recently discussed in some detail whether certain
adjectives should end in "-ative" or just "-ive", several readers
took, I suspect, mild pleasure in pointing out that in this piece
last week I'd used the word "frequentive" when its usual form among
grammarians is "frequentative". Randall Bart commented, "I don't
normally favor polysyllabificationizing, but I can't find a
dictionary listing for 'frequentive'."
ERRORS REDUX I stutteringly added a third "d" to the name of
Captain Waddell in that piece. To the many people who leapt on this
with glee I have to tell you the final "d" is silent. John Weiss
noted the other of the two typing errors in the issue ("complied"
for "compiled") and asked if I was offering prizes for spotting
them.
There's no need to give rewards,
Since the doryphores among the hordes
Will undertake this arduous job
For the simple pleasure of making me sob.
2. Weird Words: Gonfalon /'gQnf at lQn/
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A banner or pennant hung from a crossbar.
This word has close relatives in several modern European languages.
It's a variation of the older "gonfanon" that can be traced to an
ancient Teutonic term that meant a war banner. The second part of
that word has turned into modern German "Fahne", a flag, and also
into the obsolete English "fane" for a flag or weathercock, which
has become our "vane". By itself, "fanon" is a shoulder cape worn
by the Pope during solemn mass.
Gonfalons usually contain elaborately decorated images or emblems,
sometimes the coat of arms of an organisation. They frequently have
swallow tails or streamers attached. Almost any formal procession,
such as that of a church, a trade union or a university, will have
members carrying gonfalons. Historically, a gonfalon was a standard
of the medieval Italian republics.
The sun was setting over the western mountains when the last
dhow entered the bay. This was the largest of them all, and
at the peak of her stubby mast she flew the snarling leopard
head gonfalon and the gaudy colours of the House of Trok Uruk.
Warlock, by Wilbur Smith
3. Q&A: Cleft stick
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Q. While reading a news article online I came across the term
"cleft stick". An Internet search turned up several definitions,
all of them a variation on "being stuck in a difficult position".
But, for the life of me, I couldn't find anything that gave a
history of it. This is the first time I've ever seen it, and it's
such an intriguing term that I'd love to know where it came from,
hence I turn to you for help. Any clues? [Michael Shannon]
A. It's mainly a British expression. It's often rather stronger
than just being in a difficult situation - it's one in which you're
in a dilemma, a serious fix or bind in which you have no room for
manoeuvre so that any action you take will be unfavourable to you.
"Cleft" is now unusual outside a small number of fixed phrases, of
which the best known is "cleft palate". It's one of the two past
participles of the verb "cleave", to split or sever, the other
being "cloven", as in animals with cloven hooves.
The Oxford English Dictionary's first example is dated 1782, in a
letter from William Cowper: "We are squeezed to death, between the
two sides of that sort of alternative which is commonly called a
cleft stick."
The image is of a stick which has been partially severed along the
grain of the wood to make a springy clasp for some object. A thing
held in this way is in an unyielding embrace, unable to move, from
which the figurative expression derives.
Things once held in a literal cleft stick included a candle (this
appears in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens: "He bore in his right
hand a tallow candle stuck in the end of a cleft stick") and an
arrowhead attached to a cleft shaft, but the one that at once comes
to mind for me is a letter. A typical example is in a famous work
of travel writing that's still in print, The Land of Footprints by
the American author Stewart Edward White, a memoir he published in
1913 that recounted the year he spent in East Equatorial Africa
early in the century:
About the middle of the morning we met a Government runner,
a proud youth, young, lithe, with many ornaments and bangles;
his red skin glistening; the long blade of his spear, bound
around with a red strip to signify his office, slanting
across his shoulder; his buffalo hide shield slung from it
over his back; the letter he was bearing stuck in a cleft
stick and carried proudly before him as a priest carries a
cross to the heathen in the pictures.
4. Q&A: Know the ropes
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Q. Could you please explain the expression, "To teach someone the
ropes"? Is this a naval or circus term at all? [John Lanahan,
Berlin]
A. It pairs up with "know the ropes", which is a lot more common.
"Learn the ropes" is also often found. All are from seafaring.
You only have to look at pictures of old-time sailing ships to get
the point. A vast amount of cordage supported the masts as well as
the running rigging that controlled the sails and yards. Every rope
or line had a purpose and every one was essential to control the
vessel; loosen or pull the wrong one at a critical moment and all
hell might break loose. So it was vital that the crew knew the
ship's ropes: to learn them was the basic skill of any sailor.
The expression is first recorded in Richard Dana's Two Years Before
the Mast in 1840: "The captain, who had been on the coast before,
and 'knew the ropes,' took the steering-oar, and we went off in the
same way as the other boat." It's almost certainly a lot older as a
seafarer's term, because Dana is already using it in the current
figurative sense of knowing how to do something or being fully
knowledgeable or experienced.
5. Sic!
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"I spent years working for the State of Oregon," Catherine Houser
tells us. "Every so often we would see hiring announcements for
'Director, Elderly Affairs' and wondered if they really needed
official help with their love lives."
Rory Gordon received a service announcement on Thursday from his
broadband supplier in Australia: "Engineers have restored services
and the iiNet support, sales and billing lines are available. Due
to the outage wait times for the support line have increased, we
apologize for the incontinence."
Michael Grosvenor Myer and David Balfour both noticed a report in
The Times last Saturday about a gun-running network: "The gang set
up a sophisticated chain to distribute the weapons, converted by a
Lithuanian gunsmith to fire 9mm bullets, primarily from the south
to the north of England." Pretty good range for a 9mm handgun!
"This morning," e-mailed Bronwyn Cozens from Australia, "I spotted
the following ad on my local Community Noticeboard: 'For Sale,
wedding gown, never worn, delusted satin...'." Pleasures forgone.
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