The virtual linguist

Dunce

When researching an article on eponyms (also mentioned here) I discovered that the word dunce is an eponym.

It derives from the Scottish-born theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus, who died in 1308 (more about him on Wikipedia). At first his works were widely studied but by the 16th century he was regarded less kindly. Duns or Dunce was associated with the qualities of pointlessness and nit-picking. By the late 16th century dunce had acquired the meaning "a blockhead, one incapable of learning".  

Good and goodly

Reporter Brian Hanrahan referred to a goodly crowd at the site of the old Berlin wall on BBC Radio 4's PM programme this evening. At one time goodly meant attractive or excellent, but now it means sizeable or quite large. It's a literary word, and when used in speech can carry ironic undertones (I don't think Hanrahan was being ironic - it was pouring with rain in Berlin so perhaps people had stayed away from the celebrations and he felt he couldn't use the word large).

Goodly is linguistically related to the word good, of course, which is an old Germanic word and is similar in other Germanic languages cf German gut. The OED suggests that the original sense of the word was 'fitting, suitable', making it a cognate of the Russian adjective godny, suitable.

Maladroit

Home Secretary Alan Johnson recently described the government's handling of immigration as 'maladroit'. This morning on Radio 4's Today programme (here for a few more days; scroll down to 08:10) Justin Webb began his report with the OED definition of maladroit (awkward, bungling, clumsy or inept), the on-the-spot reporter also gave a definition in her report "... that it had been maladroit, or inept", and in almost all newspaper reports the word maladroit is in quotation marks, suggesting that the media clearly think no-one understands the word.

You will of course recognise the etymology of the word if you know French. Mal means badly and à droit means rightly, or properly (literally 'to right'). Its first written usage, according to the OED, was in 1685. Interestingly, the adverb maladroitly came first, according to the OED - in 1673 in Dryden's Marriage à la Mode, although Dryden wrote it as three words.

Bob's your uncle

I watched the first episode of Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (available on iplayer for another month) which looked at the period between 1901 and 1906. Marr said that the expression 'Bob's your uncle' was coined at this time.

The Bob in question was Lord Salisbury, three-time British prime minister between 1885 and 1902, whose real name was Robert (hence Bob) Cecil. He was succeeded in 1902 by Arthur Balfour, who just happened to be his nephew. The expression Bob's your uncle refers to the fact that Balfour got his position thanks to nepotism. He lost his (Tory) seat and position in the 1906 Liberal landslide.

It must be said that this explanation of the origin of the phrase is disputed and is not mentioned in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Bob's your uncle is a British and Australian expression which means "that's all there is to it" or "if you do such-and-such a thing, everything will turn out all right". It appears in this recent article from The Scotsman about fertility problems where a woman being interviewed says "I just thought it would be a simple case of coming off the pill and Bob's your uncle".

Tawdry

I was commissioned to write an article on eponyms (words which derive from the names of people), and my brief was to ignore the eponyms that everyone knows, such as bloomers, hoover and boycott but to find others to write about. I delved into my dictionaries and came upon tawdry.

Tawdry, meaning cheap and nasty, or tacky, is an eponym, because the word derives from St Audrey, a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon princess of East Anglia and patron saint of Ely. Audrey was also known by the name Etheldreda. Tawdry is short for the now obsolete expression tawdry lace. Legend has it that Audrey, a religious woman, died of a tumour in her throat. She believed the tumour grew because she was being divinely punished for her love of fine silk and lace neck ornaments. In the 16th century the women of East Anglia would buy tawdry lace adornments and jewellery at annual fairs held in honour of their patron saint. In time cheap and tacky versions of the necklaces were produced and sold at a lower price, hence today's meaning of the word tawdry.

This story reminds me a bit of the derivation of sleazy.

Steam beer

I was advised to visit the Anchor Brewing Company when I was in San Francisco last week, as they make a popular beer called steam beer. In fact, the brewery tour is so popular that tickets are sold out months ahead, so that tour will have to wait until my next trip. I couldn't resist looking up why the beer was called 'steam', though.

Anchor trademarked the name Steam Beer in the 1980s and Wikipedia tells me it is a craft-brewed (I think that means traditional) lager. Steam beer is also an old type of beer that was produced in California in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was brewed using lager yeast and without the use of refrigeration, which meant it was a pretty cheap and ordinary beer, but probably went down well with the men who went to California at around the time of the Gold Rush. Today's steam beer isn't the same thing.

The OED contains the entry 'steam beer', and defines it as "a Californian effervescent beer". The Dictionary doesn't have much on the origin of the word steam, however. It's Old English, but the OED says the origin of the word is obscure.

No-one knows for sure where the word 'steam' in the name comes from. One theory is that carbon dioxide built up during the brewing process and needed to be let off. Another is that the beer used to be cooled in vats on the rooftops so steam would be visible to those on the ground below. There was also once a traditional German ale known as Dampfbier, which translates literally as steam beer, and it is possible that the beer was named after this, especially considering that many of the brewers in California at the time were of German descent. The German Beer Institute has a page giving more information in English on Dampfbier.

The term Good evening deemed confusing

According to this Daily Mail article, police officers in Warwickshire have been advised to avoid saying 'Good evening' to people because people's definition of the word evening differs.

That is certainly true. My mother-in-law, who lives in Waterford in Ireland, says 'it's a lovely evening' where I would say 'it's a lovely afternoon' at about 3-4 pm. However, I've never found our differences to cause confusion. In fact, I would probably say it was evening if it were 5pm in November, because it is dark at that time, but I'd say afternoon in June when it's still light at 5pm.

So, how do the dictionaries define evening? The one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English has "the period of the time at the end of the day, usually from about 6pm to bedtime" (so that is a very flexible time, since people go to bed at different times). Collins has "the latter part of the day, esp from late afternoon until nightfall". Chambers, in its own inimitable quirky style, doesn't even have evening as a headword; it comes as a sub-entry under the obsolete synonym even (as does eve) and is defined very vaguely as "the close of the day". The OED has "the time from about sunset to bedtime" (so that would suggest that the word evening is used differently in summer and winter).

Even is an old, or poetic, word for evening and it derives from an Old English word. It is related to the word 'after' and when Germans say 'guten Abend' for 'good evening', they are also using a cognate.

Indigo children

I'm now back from a lovely holiday in San Francisco where I was visiting my son, who's studying at the University of California, Berkeley. I browsed in some bookshops to see which were the US bestsellers, as undoubtedly these titles will be popular in the UK before too long.

I noticed the term 'indigo children' in several titles, a term I had not heard before. Indigo children are 'special' children, believed by some to be intuitive, telepathic or psychic. The colour indigo is associated with intuition and the third eye in New Age philosophy, yoga and meditation.

Actually, maybe the books on indigo children won't make it to the shelves of British bookstores since the term has been around for several decades, and books have still not materialised here. An American parapsychologist and psychic, Nancy Anne Tappe, coined the term in the 1970s. Tappe said she noticed that certain children had indigo auras. Another book, The Indigo Children: the New Kids Have Arrived, by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, published in 1998 popularised the term once again.

No scientific studies have ever backed up the views of those who believe in the special gifts and destiny of so-called indigo children. Many scientists believe that children labelled indigo are often suffering from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and would benefit more from medication than psychobabble.

The word indigo is very much associated with India, and the name of the substance (a blue dye) reflects this. Indigo is from the Greek word indikon, and Latin word indicum, which meant 'Indian substance'. A synonym for indigo, which you will definitely know if you are a crossword buff, is anil (it's the only word that will fit if the compiler is faced with _N_L in the puzzle he or she is designing). The word anil can be traced back to Sanskrit when it meant 'dark blue'.

Gifting

This will be my last post for a fortnight, as I am going on holiday tomorrow until the beginning of November and am having a break from my computer. Please come back in two weeks' time!

I popped out earlier to get some last-minute things for my trip, and I saw that Marks & Spencer had a sign saying 'Gifting' over some shelves. Gifting isn't a word that is often used in British English (although it's not new - the OED has citations dating back to the early 17th century). It tends either to be used in formal contexts eg gifting one's stately home to the nation (which seems a bit over the top when referring to M&S bubble-bath sets and the like), or in negative contexts eg pyramid gifting schemes, or should I say scams (you recruit eight people to send you £1,000, they recruit eight people each to give them £1,000 and so on). It's sometimes used in sports reports in the sense 'giving away as a result of error or poor play' eg 'England wing Ugo Monye admitted Harlequins wrecked their own Heineken Cup campaign by gifting Toulouse top spot in Pool Five following a 19-23 defeat' which appeared in a UK Press Association report today. The Telegraph had the headline 'Labour big guns warn against gifting election to Tories' recently, which is a similar use of the word.

Why Marks & Spencer prefers to call its department Gifting rather than Gifts is a mystery to me. I think that most customers won't be familiar with the term.

POTUS

I learnt a new word today, thanks to a friend (thanks, Helen). The word is POTUS. It's an acryonym, which is why it's usually written in capitals, and stands for president of the United States. A quick review of some news reports came up with:

... Hillary Clinton wasn't elected POTUS ...

... whether she'll run for POTUS again ...

The POTUS was in office for a scant twelve days before ...

Nearly all the hits I found on Google News were from US sites, although after a quick survey of my colleagues I discovered that the word is known by a few of them, particularly those who watch The West Wing and American political thrillers.

There are also several mentions of FLOTUS, or First Lady of the United States. Here's an entertaining article from The Irish Times in which the columnist sees a hankering after ancient Rome in these naming practices. POTUS reminds her of the Latin word for 'power', potestas, and FLOTUS evokes the Roman goddess of flowers.