World Wide Words -- 03 Dec 11
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Dec 2 17:38:56 UTC 2011
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 765 Saturday 3 December 2011
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Author/editor: Michael Quinion US advisory editor: Julane Marx
Website: http://www.worldwidewords.org ISSN 1470-1448
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Contents
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1. Feedback, notes and comments.
2. Weird Words: Gremial.
3. Wordface.
4. Q and A: Weight of public opinion.
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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GOBEMOUCHE I'd denied the seeming relationship between this word
and the British "gob" for mouth. Andy Behrens argued otherwise:
"'Gober' and 'gob' are cognates. Both derive from the same Celtic
root word for beak or mouth: the English 'gob' by way of Irish, the
French 'gober' by way of Gaulish (the Celtic language spoken in
France before the arrival of the Romans)."
2. Weird Words: Gremial /'gri:mI at l/
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This rather rare and specialist word has turned up twice in recent
years in newspapers in the UK, in both cases in obituaries of Church
of England bishops.
One had the phrase "gremial college", the other referred to a bishop
being "attired in mitre, ceremonial gloves and gremial". Though they
are obviously different senses, it may be surprising to learn that
they are closely connected. Both derive from late Latin "gremialis",
which in turn comes from the anatomically imprecise "gremium", the
lap or bosom.
When you are scholastically gremial, you have figuratively laid your
head in the welcoming lap or bosom of a university or college: you
are not only a member, you're living there. Older documents would at
times refer to non-gremial students who were enrolled but who lived
elsewhere. The word was confined to locations in which knowledge of
the classical languages was common; though you might also describe
servants who lived in as gremial, nobody ever did. "Gremial" in the
clerical context is a silk apron worn during confirmations or when
conferring holy orders, to prevent vestments being stained by drips
of the chrism oil.
There is a third sense, carrying the idea of a bosom friend, which
is actually the oldest. This is now very rare and I can find only
one modern use:
"You are very fond of him, I believe?" "Am I? Yes;
perhaps I am. I would not call him a gremial friend - I
have not known him long enough - but I am very much
attached to him. I am sorry that you are not."
[Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian, 1970.]
3. Wordface
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NEW WORDS, FRENCH STYLE The tenth XYZ Festival of new words took
place in the French port of Le Havre last weekend. It gave prizes to
a couple of neologisms for which we might usefully find equivalents
in English. First prize went to "attachiant", a blend of "attachant"
(captivating, endearing) and the slang "chiant" (a bloody nuisance
or a pain in the arse/ass). It refers to somebody whom you can't
live with but can't live without. It outvoted another term, which
blends "agriculteur", a formal word for a farmer, with "aigri"
(embittered), to make "aigriculteur", a farmer discouraged by the
difficulties of his occupation. The French years ago borrowed our
term "best seller", so you might also like "bête seller" (borrowed
from bête noire, something one particularly dislikes), a book that's
a total turkey (in French "navet littéraire", literally a literary
turnip) but nevertheless becomes a best seller.
4. Q and A: Weight of public opinion
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Q. I work for a Committee in the US Senate. To mark National
Archives Month our Archivist has been e-mailing various documents
and in a recent one commented: "In cases of large petitions,
signatures were not counted, but weighed. This is where the terms
'weight of public opinion' and 'voters weighing in' come from." My
initial search for references to this online yielded nothing. Is
this apocryphal? If not, was it in use prior to the 19th century?
[Scott W Langill]
A. That is a most interesting statement. Like you, I've searched my
available sources but can't find anybody who puts this forward as
the origin of these expressions, not even humorously. I'd be most
interested to learn the Archivist's evidence for it.
The linguistic evidence says it's untrue. People have for a very
long time used weight as a way to figuratively describe the mental
burden of assessing information and making decisions. The idea is at
least two millennia old - when we ponder some matter, for example,
we're etymologically weighing it, since that verb comes from the
Latin verb "ponderare", which meant not only literally to weigh
something but also to reflect on an issue. In modern English we may
argue that the views of people of all ages should be given equal
weight, we may consider the weight of the evidence (in law linked to
the image of the scales of justice), or we may calculate a weighted
average (in which each element is multiplied by a factor that
reflects its importance). Such metaphors are everywhere.
The specific phrase "weight of public opinion" is a member of this
set. Thomas Jefferson employed it in his second inaugural address in
March 1805: "our citizens at large, who, by the weight of public
opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures." It is to be
found before the nineteenth century, though only just:
From the nature of the British Government, the
continual superintendence of Parliament, the weight of
public opinion, and the influence which all these
circumstances have on the character and conduct of persons
in official situations, there is a greater probability
than in other countries that the Administration will
ordinarily be at least right in its intentions, and will
adapt its measures from a belief that they are such as
will tend to the benefit of the nation.
[A Review of the Principal Proceedings of the
Parliament of 1784, quoted in the Gentleman's Magazine,
May 1792.]
The other expression, "to weigh in", meaning to bring a forceful
view to bear on some discussion, is rather more recent, being
recorded, the Oxford English Dictionary says, from the early
twentieth century. Its origin is obscure; it might derive from
boxers weighing in before a fight.
None of this establishes without doubt that nobody ever weighed a
petition to judge its worth, since petitions had been around for
centuries before the earlier of the two phrases appeared. But the
long existence of the figurative uses of "weight" overwhelmingly
supports that origin for the phrases.
5. Sic!
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Could this be a unique case of time-traveller's amnesia? Ed Floden
found a report on the website of WKRN-TV Nashville: "A Nashville
woman was surprised to find that she had purchased a turkey from a
local grocery store that had expired four years ago."
"How else?" was the response of Pat O'Halloran to a BBC News Devon
report on 23 November: "'Bow has a shop 300 yards (274m) outside the
village perimeter which a lot of pedestrians walk to,' Mr Backhouse
said."
John Eliot Spofford reports that the online Newswire edition of
Trains magazine for 28 November had this headline for an article
about the Metro-North commuter train service for New York City:
"Metro-North unveils plan to improve winter interruptions".
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