World Wide Words -- 06 Jul 02
Michael Quinion
DoNotUse at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Jul 5 16:46:55 UTC 2002
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 296 Saturday 6 July 2002
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Sent each Saturday to 15,000+ subscribers in at least 119 countries
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
<http://www.worldwidewords.org> <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Turns of Phrase: Grid computing.
3. Weird Words: Blackmail.
4. Beyond Words.
5. Article: How do words become part of the language?
6. Endnote.
7. Subscription commands.
8. Contact addresses.
1. Feedback, notes and comments
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CLERIHEW My gently sarcastic comments last week, especially on the
derived form "clerihewer", brought forth this example of the form
from Paul Wakeham:
Michael Quinion
Is of the opinion
That he should be terse
With those that hack verse.
And if you wish to be self-referential in your dislike, there's
always this one, remembered by Terry Montgomery from New Zealand:
Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Should not be treated gently.
To him is due
The Clerihew.
2. Turns of Phrase: Grid computing
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This is the fashionable new term for a networking system once more
commonly called "distributed computing". The basic idea is that
instead of running a program on one big computer, you run it on
lots of small computers connected through a network. One example is
the SETI at Home project, in which spare time on thousands of PCs is
borrowed using the Internet to analyse data from radio-astronomy
signals with the aim of finding evidence of extraterrestrial life.
A similar kind of project searching for very large prime numbers
has found five new ones. The idea is attractive to large companies,
which often have thousands of idle networked PCs. Various computer
companies, such as IBM, are working towards commercialising what
has now been renamed "grid computing" and a centre to develop the
idea was opened in Edinburgh in April. The term comes from the
electricity "grid" that connects producers with consumers.
The idea behind distributed or grid computing is to share computer
applications and resources, such as processing power and storage,
over the Internet.
["Toronto Star", Feb. 2002]
The grid computing concept enables us to use computing power and
data storage as if they were some kind of utility like electricity,
gas and water.
["Jakarta Post", Apr. 2002]
3. Weird Words: Blackmail
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Demanding money by threats, especially to expose secrets.
This looks weird because we no longer know the relevant meaning of
the second part. It has nothing to do with mail delivered by the
postal carrier, which is from Old French "male", for a wallet (the
word eventually transferred from the pouch carried by a messenger
to the things carried in the pouch). Nor is it linked to the chain
mail of medieval knights; this comes from Latin "macula" for a spot
or mesh, referring to the individual metal bits of the mail. (So
"blackmail", despite what you sometimes read, has nothing to do
with medieval knights' chain mail turning black as ghastly
retribution for dishonourable deeds.)
The "mail" in "blackmail" (at various times also spelled "maill",
"male" and in other ways) is an old Scots word for rent. This was
usually paid in what was often called "white money", silver coins.
It comes from Old Norse "mal", meaning an agreement, later a
contract, and then the payment specified by the contract.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries chiefs in the highlands
of Scotland and along the border between Scotland and England ran
protection rackets in which they threatened farmers with pillage
and worse if they didn't pay up. This amounted to an informal tax
or extra rent and the farmers, with twisted humour, thought of it
as the opposite of the legitimate white money or white mail that
they paid. Black has for many centuries been associated with the
dark side of human activities, hence "blackmail".
The term was extended in the nineteenth century to other ways of
extorting money with menaces, and in particular to the threat of
exposing a person's secrets.
4. Beyond Words
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Back in about 1958, I saw a book in Hove Library whose title made
me stop and laugh. Now the BBC has published another with exactly
the same title. Am I the only person who finds incongruous a work
entitled "How to Grow Cut Flowers"? Put razor blades in the flower
beds, perhaps?
5. Article: How do words become part of the language?
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A student recently e-mailed me to enquire how a word officially
becomes part of the English language. He was certain that there
must be some formal process involved. Surely, he said, there must
be a body such as a group of lexicographers that decides when a
word is really a word, as otherwise English would be anarchic.
People ask variations on this question a lot. Many believe that
when (and only when) a word appears in a reputable dictionary it
receives formal validation and can take its place in the English
lexicon. Even the Guardian newspaper fell into this trap recently
when it referred to "bonkbuster" (see footnote) as having "gained
official recognition as part of the English language", when it was
included in the most recent update of the Oxford English Dictionary
online.
My young correspondent description suggests a delightful scenario.
As one of a number of researchers who collect evidence of new usage
for the OED, it intrigued me to think that I might be a member,
even a junior member, of a shadowy cabal that sets the standards
for all well-educated English speakers. No - the process really is
as anarchic as it seems. This is actually a relief, since I'd hate
to be held personally responsible for the current state of the
language.
In the world of today's lexicography, usage is king. We are, in the
language of the business, "descriptive" dictionary makers: we
record, we collate, we analyse, and we describe what people
actually say and write. If enough English speakers decide that some
word or phrase has value, to the extent that those who encounter it
are likely to need to consult the dictionary in search of its
meaning, then it is put into new editions. Not always very quickly
- there is merit in taking one's time to build up a picture of
usage and so avoid being misled by temporary enthusiasms and short-
lived fashion. And if enough speakers decide that a word no longer
means what the dictionaries say it means but something else
entirely, then we have to note that, too. You may feel that such
changes amount to misuse - and certainly terms do change because of
ignorance or misunderstandings - but that's largely irrelevant to
the job of the dictionary maker.
This standpoint is sometimes misunderstood, and as often disliked.
People who consult dictionaries most commonly want the tablets of
the law, not a mirror to language. In practice, dictionaries take a
middle course between whole-hearted descriptivism and prescriptive
edicts. They advise when a form is controversial, or a word is
going out of use, or is shifting its sense. But what they don't do
is leave out such changes or make personal judgements on which
words are worth including and which not.
Some people hate this anarchy so much that there are occasional
calls for a body to regulate the language, control what should be
in and what out, and to advise users on what is good English and
bad. The example of the Académie Française is often put in
evidence. The Académie attempts to maintain the purity of the
French language (for example, by providing lists of French words
that are suitable alternatives to the influx of English neologisms,
such as replacing "tie-break" with "jeu décisif", "walkman" with
"baladeur", or "software" with "logiciel"), but its influence,
though great, has not been decisive. There have been determined
attempts to amend the way people use languages: Noah Webster was
influential in changing some spellings in the United States after
the 1820s; Kemal Atatürk changed Turkish to the Latin script in
1928 and removed many borrowings from other languages; the
Singapore government has instituted a Speak Good English session
every April to persuade local people to use international English
rather than their own patois called Singlish; there have recently
been spelling changes in both Dutch and German. Making that kind of
change requires political will and muscle and is hard even then.
Canute had it right - there are some tides which authority is
unable easily to resist or control.
In the end, the decision about what appears in a dictionary lies
with its editors. And that means there are - in theory - as many
possible decisions about what constitutes correct, current English
as there are competing dictionaries. There are constraints, of
course, that lead them to converge - they are all working from the
same evidence, after all, and must satisfy the same book-buying
public that their works are accurate and up to date. And sensible
dictionary publishers provide checks and balances at various stages
to reduce the inevitable subjectivity of individual decisions.
So, no English Academy, I'm afraid. No huddles of earnest scholars,
debating the current crop of neologisms (like "bonkbuster") and
marking them with the tick of official acceptance or the cross of
oblivion. Just a number of individual dictionary editors, trying to
make sense of an inchoate mass of material thrown up by shifts in
fashion, personal usage, inventive genius, new technologies, and a
dozen other factors. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
[* The OED's definition of bonkbuster: "A type of popular novel
characterized by frequent explicit sexual encounters between the
characters. Popularized by the British writer Sue Limb, writing
under the pseudonym 'Dulcie Domum', in her humorous newspaper
column 'Bad Housekeeping' (1990-2001)". The word is from the common
British slang "bonk" for "an act of sexual intercourse", on the
model of "blockbuster".]
6. Endnote
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"He got hold of the red meat of the language and turned it into
hamburgers." [Richard Gordon on Ernest Hemingway, quoted in Nigel
Rees' "Dictionary of Humorous Quotations" (1998)]
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