World Wide Words -- 05 Nov 11
Michael Quinion
wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Fri Nov 4 17:17:16 UTC 2011
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 761 Saturday 5 November 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: Tourbillion.
3. Topical Words: Plan B.
4. Q and A: Egg somebody on.
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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WELCOME A special greeting to the many subscribers who have joined
as a result of World Wide Words being featured in three publications
in the past week: by John McIntyre in his You Don't Say column in
the Baltimore Sun last Saturday, by Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune
on Sunday, and by Randy Cassingham in his This is True newsletter
under the heading Bonzer Web Site of the Week. He features events
from the news that are bizarre but true - I've been a subscriber for
many years (http://www.thisistrue.com/). If you'd like to follow up
the dated Australianism "bonzer" - today celebrated more outside the
country than in - go to http://wwwords.org?BNZR.
2. Weird Words: Tourbillion /tU@'bIlj at n/
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The Fifth of November in Britain is a traditional festival marked by
bonfires and fireworks. It commemorates the day in 1605 when a group
of conspirators, including the infamous Guy Fawkes (in truth a minor
member of the plot), failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament and
with it King James I of England. It's celebrated privately less than
it used to be because of the high cost and perceived danger of
fireworks, but public events remain common.
"Tourbillion" (in older works more commonly "tourbillon") is one of
the many types of firework that might be part of the festivities. It
was described by Charles Dickens:
A Tourbillon is a sort of double rocket, having
orifices so placed as to produce a double recoil - one
rotatory and one vertical - the Tourbillon revolves and
ascends at the same time, and is an exceedingly beautiful
and brilliant firework.
[Household Words, 10 Sep. 1853. Putting it another way,
it produces a vertical spiral of flame and sparks.]
Many famous pyrotechnic displays have included them, such as the
extraordinarily lavish and over-hyped one in April 1749 that was
accompanied by the first performance of Handel's Music for the Royal
Fireworks:
The fire-works were then displayed, and consisted of
several thousand rockets, cascades, archimedean screws,
wheels, fountains, fixed and vertical suns, marrons,
tourbillons, pots de brin, fire-ballons etc.
[London, or Interesting Memorials of its Rise, Progress
& Present State, by Joseph Clinton Robertson, 1824.]
Like many other firework names, "tourbillion" is from French. The
French influence derives from an early work on the ceremonial and
recreational uses of fireworks published by the military engineer
Amédée-François Frézier in 1706. "Tourbillion" is from "tourbillon",
a tornado or whirlwind, which can be traced back to Latin "turbo",
something that spins or revolves, such as a top, a whirlpool or
eddy, or a tornado. In English "tourbillion" has had the last two of
these senses and is also known to watchmakers as a rotating cage
that's designed to offset the movements of the wearer.
Other firework names from French include "crossette" (little cross),
which breaks into pieces to make a cross shape; "gerbe" (a sheaf of
wheat), which throws up a fan of coloured sparks or flames; "maroon"
("marron", a chestnut), which makes a loud bang like a cannon (it's
said to derive from the noise of a chestnut bursting in the fire);
"nautic" ("nautique", nautical), a firework that floats on water. A
"pot de brin" was described by Charles Dickens in the same article
in Household Words as "a case or cavity from which serpents, stars,
and crackers are thrown up into the air".
3. Topical Words: Plan B
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It's extraordinary what fuss a little letter can cause.
The news in Britain in recent weeks has been full of references to
the notorious Plan A of the Chancellor, George Osborne. He said last
year that his scheme for improving the country's finances was the
only one needed. Last December, the Treasury insisted that "There is
no Plan B", which shows signs of becoming a sarcastic catchphrase. A
hundred economists published an open letter in the Observer last
Sunday in an attempt to change Osborne's mind, arguing that "It is
now clear that plan A isn't working" and urging the government to
adopt a plan B. This has been reinforced this week by similar calls
from the Liberal Democrats, coalition partners in the government. Ed
Balls, Osborne's Labour opposition counterpart, dismisses all such
alphabetical labels: "Call it Plan A-plus. Call it Plan B. Call it
Plan C. I don't care what they call it - Britain just needs a plan
that works."
Observers of a logical bent might wonder, if Mr Osborne only ever
expects to have a Plan A, why he bothered to assign a letter to it.
A British author had fun with this approach half a century ago:
"This is what I call 'pattern A'."
"And what is pattern B?" asked Ann Halsey.
"There won't be any pattern B."
"Then why bother with the A?"
"Preserve me from the obtuseness of women! I can call it
pattern A because I want to, can't I?"
"Of course, dear. But why do you want to?"
[The Black Cloud, by Fred Hoyle, 1959.]
To label alternatives with letters is now so fashionable as hardly
to warrant much comment, even though to develop possibilities much
beyond Plan C is either to suggest an over-controlling and anxious
personality or strategies that contemplate extraordinary
contingencies. Plan Z gets some attention, but usually as one so far
down the list it can only be crackpottery. Even Plan B is more often
a humorous comment on a Plan A that has proved impracticable ("we
need a plan B", "time for plan B") than a serious potential
alternative.
Legal documents have identified plans and drawings by letters for at
least a couple of centuries. The origin of the figurative expression
partly lies here, but more specifically in plans that illustrate
alternative proposals for a development ("The scheme shown in Plan A
for remodelling the house is more expensive than the alternative
outlined in Plan B").
The Oxford English Dictionary has entries for both Plan A and Plan B
which imply that they originate in the US. However, its earliest
citation for Plan B - a letter sent during the Civil War in 1863 -
turns out to refer to a physical plan or drawing. I have found a
British example, from the Report of the proceedings of the Church
Congress held in Cambridge in November 1861, where it refers to one
of two proposals for a scheme to modify church taxes. The first
known example of Plan A is currently from an equally improbable
source - the 1867 Report of the US Commissioners to the Paris
Universal Exposition of that year.
4. Q and A: Egg somebody on
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Q. Please can you explain how we came to "egg things on"? [Ted
Setterington]
A. That form of the idiom is interesting. I hadn't previously come
across it as an impersonal construction; it's more usually as "to
egg somebody on", meaning to encourage or incite a person to take
some action, often inappropriate, dangerous or illegal. Here's an
example of your version:
"People are emotional, agitated, so they are easy to
influence. It doesn't take much to egg things on," he
said.
[Oakland Tribune, 10 Jul. 2010.]
And here's one in the form that appears more often:
Party-loving Mike hit the dance floor with other
stripping pals at a boozy 40th birthday bash for one of
his Sports Direct chain workers. Other guests egged them
on with shouts of "More" and "Get 'em off"
[The Sun (London), 5 Sep. 2011. Several photographs
were attached, but I'll spare you those.]
Despite its spelling, it has nothing to do with actual ova. Those
involved are not being persuaded into their actions through fear of
being pelted with eggs, nor are eggs employed in any other way. The
source is quite different and its spelling is accidental, the result
of orthographical convergence.
The origin is actually the Old Norse "eggja", to incite, which is
related to Old English "ecg", an edge, and to the Middle Low German
"eggen", to harrow. That might suggest you egg somebody on by poking
them in the back with something sharp, but the connection doesn't
seem to be so literal. Anyhow, the word came into English around the
year 1200, initially in the sense of provoking or tempting a person.
Our modern form isn't so ancient, but old enough, appearing in the
middle of the sixteenth century.
By the time "egg somebody on" had appeared, the spelling had changed
through being influenced by eggs of the consumable sort.
5. Sic!
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The San Francisco Chronicle reported on a court case in its issue of
31 October, Jitze Couperus tells us: "A Florida widow who died in
the 2001 anthrax mailings has reached a tentative settlement in her
lawsuit against the U.S. government according to court filings."
Numeracy rules. Fred A Roth reports that a headline on Fox News on
27 October read "FOX NEWS POLL: More than three thirds of Americans
are dissatisfied with the way the U.S. is heading." It has since
been changed. So has the one Roy Zukerman spotted on the website of
the Los Angeles Times the same day: in an article about measuring
the size of the planetoid Eris when it passed in front of a star, it
stated that "Just three telescopes, both in Chile, managed to catch
the event."
Seen by Ian Harrison on an advertising sign placed by a well-known
local supermarket in Johannesburg: "Whole chicken pieces." How would
one tell?
"The ads down the side of Gmail," wrote Sarah Borowski, "are quite
often a source of amusement, such as this one, obviously aimed at
Jake the Peg: 'Get 3 For The Price Of 2 When You Shop Online With
Hotter Shoes!'"
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