World Wide Words -- 04 Sep 04

Fri Sep 3 17:36:43 UTC 2004

WORLD WIDE WORDS        ISSUE 408         Saturday 4 September 2004
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Sent each Saturday to 20,000+ subscribers in at least 120 countries
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK      ISSN 1470-1448
http://www.worldwidewords.org        wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Turns of Phrase: Nordic walking.
3. Weird Words: Quodlibet.
4. Sic!
5. Q&A: Bistro.
A. Subscription commands.
B. E-mail contact addresses.

1. Feedback, notes and comments
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VLOGGER  Several subscribers queried why I suggested that this and
related words were likely to be said as though there was a hyphen
after the initial "v", as in "e-mail"; some told me that they did
indeed pronounce them as single words. I assumed that because the
initial combination "vl" doesn't occur in modern English (to me it
sounds Slavic because of names like "Vladimir") people were likely
to be uncomfortable with it. It seems that I may be wrong, but the
sample of those who responded was too small to be sure either way.

BE GRATEFUL THAT IT DOESN'T LAST ALL YEAR ...  as Tom Lehrer once
sang in another context. Liza Tewell e-mailed to remind me that in
the USA September, as well as being National Piano Month, National
Sewing Month, Southern Gospel Music Month, National Coupon Month,
and National Potato Month, is also "Be Kind to Writers and Editors
Month". Gentle comments only, please, gentle readers.

2. Turns of Phrase: Nordic walking
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This term dates from about 1997, though an American firm claims to
have been promoting the technique under a different name since the
1980s. However, it has only started to become at all widely known
in the last couple of years and is fairly new in the UK. It is from
a Finnish method of training cross-country skiers during the summer
months. The idea is that you use poles to walk with an action much
like that of skiing. This is said to increase upper arm movement,
exercise the main muscle groups and burn more calories than walking
by itself. Nordic walking has been taken up as a way for people to
get slim and fit even if they're never likely to strap on skis.

>>> From the Observer, 8 Aug. 2004: The new fitness craze of Nordic
walking has given rise to a host of activity holidays dedicated to
the sport. A cross between high-altitude power walking and cross-
country skiing, Nordic skiers stride up mountains using a side-to-
side rhythm that burns 20 per cent more calories than normal
walking.

>>> From the Toronto Star, 1 Apr. 2004: In the winter, cross-
country skiing rules and the Finns seem to miss it so much in
summer that they invented a new exercise, Nordic walking, which is
walking with ski poles.

3. Weird Words: Quodlibet  /'kwQdlIbEt/
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Either a topic for (or exercise in) philosophical or theological
discussion, or a light-hearted medley of well-known tunes.

What a shift of meaning this humble if slightly exotic term has
undergone. Though the first sense has fallen out of day-to-day use,
it is usually given in dictionaries because philosophers at times
have cause to refer to some medieval quodlibet, as here in The
Review of Metaphysics of June 2003: "In his Quodlibet III, disputed
in 1288, Giles of Rome asked ex professo whether the will could
move itself."

These disputations, often on subtle points of logic or religious
doctrine, were frequently exercises for students, in the same
spirit as moots (mock court cases) are for the legal fraternity.
This may be why this Latin word was given to them, as it derives
from "quod", what, plus "libet", it pleases, so roughly "what
pleases you" or "as you like". It seems to have had much the same
idea behind it as the modern hand-waving "whatever" - argue away,
the word seems to be saying, the result is of little consequence.

How it got from philosophy to music is a minor mystery. While the
first sense is recorded from the twelfth century, the musical one
only appears in English in 1845, though quodlibets are known much
earlier, famously in works by Bach and Mozart. In his biography of
Bach, published in 1802, Johann Forkel says it was a Bach family
custom to improvise such joking medleys and that the Bachs called
them by this name - so they may be the source of the musical sense.
In this connection it certainly lives up to the idea behind the
Latin word, since the aim is to produce a humorous combination of
tunes to please the audience.

4. Sic!
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Wes Velkov encountered these sentences in last Monday's Los Angeles
Times: "This New Yorker, who lives on the perimeter of one of the
toughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, was more afraid of the dangers
surrounding the convention hall than she was about getting shot on
the subway near her house. Which happens periodically." He said:
"One would think that after the first few times she would find a
new place to live."

On Friday 27 August, Mike Reilly has pointed out, several American
newspapers and online news services carried the headline "Explosive
Sniffing Dogs to Enhance VRE Security", a cure that sounds a great
deal worse than the original problem. The headline was copied from
the AP Wire service, whose story was reassuring: "Virginia Railway
Express trains are expected to be safer for commuters beginning
next week when authorities begin using dogs trained to sniff out
explosives for random searches of the rail cars."

5. Q&A
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Q. A friend tells me that the word "bistro" has its origins from
the Russians. He claims that when the Russians occupied Paris in
the 1800s, whenever they visited a restaurant where the service was
slow, they hammered their fists on the table and shouted "bistro"
which apparently means "hurry up" in Russian. I think he's pulling
my leg! [Graham Shipley, Australia]

A. It sounds wonderfully detailed and plausible, doesn't it? That's
always a sign that somebody may be telling a story, since real-life
etymology is frequently prosaic and inconclusive. A search online
and in books on word histories will find tales like this retold in
French, Russian and English - the most frequent one points to the
Cossacks who occupied Paris in 1814 or 1815.

Your friend may not be pulling your leg, at least not knowingly.
That's because the origin has some academic respectability and is
quoted as a possible origin - for example - in both Chambers
Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English. And in Russian a
word very like "bistro" does mean "rapidly". The French word is a
puzzle for native speakers, because they can't account for the
ending or where the root of the word comes from, and as a result it
does look foreign.

But once you start to look at its history, the story becomes less
probable, mainly because the word is first recorded in French (as
"bistro" in 1884 and as "bistrot" in 1892) long after those rowdy
rude Cossacks supposedly came to town. We wordhounds are used to
terms that lurk in the lexicographical shadows for decades before
they become popular, but the 70-year gap is just too much to be
easily accepted.

As so often, the trouble is that there's nothing obvious to put in
its place and etymologists have had to cast around to find possible
sources. One suggestion is "bistouille" or "bistrouille", a slangy
term from northern France meaning a mixture of coffee and brandy, a
cheap grade of brandy, or any drink of poor quality, possibly one
that might be served in a bistro. Another guess is that it might be
connected with "bistraud", a word in the Poitou dialect whose sense
dictionaries and works on word history seem unable to decide on -
some say it means a minor servant, but others suggest it refers to
a small household, and senses such as "young cowherd" or "little
shepherd" are also given.

As so often, we have to suspect the popular notion, but can't find
anything definite to put in its place.

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Michael Quinion
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