World Wide Words -- 12 Oct 02

[Michael Quinion]

WORLD WIDE WORDS         ISSUE 311         Saturday 12 October 2002
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Turns of Phrase: Cyberloafing.
3. Weird Words: Blackguard.
4. Sic!
5. Q&A: How to stress "kilometre"; Blue-plate special.
6. Endnote.
A. Subscription commands.
B. Contact addresses.
C. Help support World Wide Words.


1. Feedback, notes and comments
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HELP SUPPORT WORLD WIDE WORDS  Please see the very last section of
this mailing for an important update.


2. Turns of Phrase: Cyberloafing
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If you're reading this in the office, you may be cyberloafing, as
it's the term for employees who surf the Internet when they should
be working. It's not an especially new word (it dates from the end
of the heyday of the "cyber-" word-creation boom, about 1996) but
it has become newsworthy recently following the publication of a
paper by Vivien K G Lim of the National University of Singapore in
the Journal of Organizational Behavior. She surveyed a selection of
self-identified cyberloafers and found that they often did so not
out of boredom or laziness but as an act of defiance against what
they saw as unjust actions by their employers - so a conscious
attempt to balance the ledger. The term's root is the colloquial
English noun "loafer", someone who spends time idly. This is known
from about 1830, originally in the US, but its origin is unknown;
it might come from a German word for a tramp, "Landläufer".

Gartner estimates that about five percent of enterprise workers
engage in inappropriate online behavior at the office, ranging from
simple "cyberloafing" to using company Internet access to hold down
a second job.
                                          [Business Wire, May 2001]

As employers grow wary of workers cyberloafing and worry about
litigation over offensive and incriminating e-mail, many companies
are cracking down with strict e-mail use policies and software to
monitor network usage.
                                              [PC World, Mar. 2000]


3. Weird Words: Blackguard  /'blagA:d/
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A man who behaves in a dishonourable or contemptible way.

It's sad that this contemptuous term for a scoundrel has fallen out
of use, since it carries a big punch. Our usual pronunciation as
"blaggard" obscures its curious composition. Who or what was the
"black guard" that got itself such a dreadful reputation? If I had
a time machine handy, I'd go back to about 1500 and ask some
pointed questions of Londoners. Failing this device, matters have
to remain somewhat obscure.

The earliest recorded use, by a few years, was in 1535. Then it
referred to low menials in a royal or noble household. They were
the ones who looked after the pots and pans and other kitchen
utensils: the scullions or kitchen-knaves. Nobody knows for sure
why they were said to be black - perhaps the colour of the pots
literally or figuratively rubbed off on them. A slightly later
sense is of the rabble that followed an army about: the servants,
camp-followers and general hangers-on (here "black" presumably has
its common derogatory sense). There seems to be a third sense,
which refers to a guard of attendants or soldiers who were dressed
in black; it's possible that there really was a Black Guard - so
called - at Westminster about this time (there are account records
that refer to them, but nobody has any idea who they actually
were).

By the eighteenth century, the term was applied to children and
young people who made a living any way they could, either as boot
blacks or general assistants to soldiers (presumably this was a
joke on the literal form of the word). Our modern sense appeared
about 1730, and was a highly offensive term for a scoundrel or
villain, or any low worthless minor criminal.


4. Sic!
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Regular readers will know that one of my jobs each week is to read
the New Scientist magazine cover to cover, including the adverts.
These often provide unintended moments of humour, as in one last
week, which wanted two laboratory technicians for "our fast-moving
manufacturing facility". A vision arose of new staff desperately
chasing their place of work as it vanished into the distance ...


5. Q&A
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Q. The title of your new book, Ologies and Isms, reminded me of a
thought I've had about "kilometer". The word is not essential in
the USA, except for scientific measurement. I use two different
pronunciations depending on context: in scientific and most other
contexts, I'll use "KILometers", but for road distances (and common
measure when I'm in Canada), I'll say "kiLOMeters". I wonder if
this dual pronunciation is common in the rest of the English-
speaking world. [William Murray; a related question came from Tim
Riley in London]

A. The version with the stress on the second syllable used to be
the typical US pronunciation only, with the rest of the English-
speaking world stressing the word on the first syllable. In Britain
and Commonwealth countries the one stressing the first syllable is
still considered by many to be the only correct form.

But the situation is changing. I hear the word stressed on the
second syllable quite regularly from reporters on the BBC news, for
example. Professor John Wells of London University surveyed British
usage for the 1998 edition of his Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
and found that in the decade since his last survey the form with
initial stress had lost ground to the other. In 1988 "kilometre"
with initial stress was just in the majority, but in ten years had
slipped back to only 43% of those who replied. If that trend goes
on, it will take only a generation for the non-specialist American
pronunciation to take over entirely in Britain. It's ironic that
the American pronunciation should prevail when Americans - almost
the last users of non-metric measures in the world - have less need
for the word than other English speakers.

As you say, in scientific use the stress tends to be more often on
the first syllable, perhaps because the significance of the prefix
is more obvious in technical contexts.

What is particularly hard to understand is why this stress shift
with "kilometre" should happen at all. It doesn't with other metric
units ending in "-metre" ("-meter" if you're American): we don't
move it in "centimetre" or "millimetre", for example. It does
happen sometimes with "micrometre", which can take on the same
stress as the measuring instrument, which is spelled "micrometer"
everywhere, but this is much less common (and has probably been
affected by the way the name of the measuring instrument is said).
Also, it doesn't happen with other units prefixed with "kilo-",
such as "kilogram" and "kilolitre" (the first of these is unlikely
because it has too few syllables, but the second ought to be
possible).

I asked Professor Wells to comment on all this. His reply was, in
essence, "nobody knows". He pointed out that there are well-known
differences in stresses between American and British English, for
example with "controversy" and "metallurgy". But the stress pattern
here is the other way around: Americans generally prefer to stress
them on the first syllable, while Brits prefer the second syllable.

Professor Wells also said that the various historical studies "show
that many words have fluctuated wildly and unpredictably in their
stress patterns over the years. Why did we change from "cha-RAC-
ter" to "CHAR-acter", or from "bal-CO-ny" to "BAL-cony"? I don't
think anyone really knows".

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Q. I've been seeking the etymology of "blue plate special". One
friend said it goes back to the use of the blue ribbon to signify
"the best". Another suggested that diners served their value meal
of the day on blue-rimmed plates. Can you be more definitive? [Alan
Koss; related questions came from Ted Nesbitt, Susan Gabaree and
Richard Duggan]

A. What's with all these questions on this phrase coming at once?
Is there a quiz on somewhere? If I give the right answer, do I get
a share of the prize?

As it happens, answering it isn't going to be easy. I'd never come
across this curious expression before (though it is widely known in
the USA) and you may not believe the number of reference books that
say nothing about it. But by a coincidence that makes me feel I
have a lexicographical fairy godmother, a brief discussion about
the term appeared recently on the mailing list of the American
Dialect Society, which helped a lot with the background and dates.

As you imply, a blue plate special is (or was) a set meal served at
a reduced price, usually in the cheaper sort of restaurant. The
first example in the big Oxford English Dictionary is from a book
by Sinclair Lewis dated 1945, but it is also the title of a story
by Damon Runyon published in 1934. We have recently learned,
because the digital complete text of the New York Times has become
available, that it's recorded in that newspaper as far back as
1926, and is probably older still.

A good description of the way the term was used is in an issue of
the periodical The Restaurant Man for January 1929 under the title
Quick Lunchplaces Have Own Vernacular. In an attached glossary, the
writer wrote that: "A 'blue plate' is the label given a special
daily combination of meat or fish, potatoes and vegetables, sold at
a special price, and is ordered with the words, 'blue plate'". (My
thanks to Barry Popik for finding this.)

So far so good, but finding out where the phrase comes from is
rather more difficult. Though "blue ribbon" or "blue riband", as a
badge of honour that implies distinction and excellence, dates from
early in the nineteenth century, it's very doubtful whether it had
any link to inexpensive restaurant meals, however good their value.
The idea that it comes from a real blue plate on which the meal was
served seems to be the right one. The Random House Webster's
Dictionary says of "blue plate": "a plate, often decorated with a
blue willow pattern, divided by ridges into sections for holding
apart several kinds of food". The Dictionary implies that the
inexpensive meals were served on such plates.

Daniel Rogov, in the online Culinary Corner, recently provided an
answer that may clear the whole thing up, though I've not been able
to confirm what he says. He claims the first use of "blue-plate
special" was on a menu of the Fred Harvey restaurants on 22 October
1892. These restaurants were built at stations to serve the
travelling public on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad
and it seems the blue-plate set meal was designed to rapidly serve
passengers whose trains stopped only for a few minutes. He went on
to say, "As to why the term 'blue plate' - no mystery here. Fred
Harvey bought nearly all his serving plates from a company in
Illinois. Modelling their inexpensive but sturdy plates after those
made famous by Josiah Wedgwood ... these were, of course, blue in
color. Thus, quite literally, the 'blue plate' special".

And before anyone asks, Kmart's "bluelight special" is an obvious
borrowing from "blue-plate special"!


6. Endnote
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"Language is a solemn thing, I said. It grows out of life, out of
its agonies and ecstasies, its wants and its weariness. Every
language is a temple, in which the soul of those who speak it is
enshrined." [Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Professor at the Breakfast
Table" (1860)]


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