This Week's Theme: Terms Imported from Other Languages.
Monday, 3 April 2006
Tuesday, 4 April 2006
au contraire
(oh kon-TRAIR) noun
On the contrary.
[From French au contraire (on the contrary).]
On the face of it, there seems no reason to prefer au contraire to "on the contrary". The meaning is obvious whether it's expressed in French or English. True, the French version is two words rather than three but the saving is minimal and beside the point. The value of au contraire, therefore, lies with the slightly camp context in which it's usually found. An earnest argument demands "on the contrary", but an opposing point of view, not meant too seriously and delivered with a flap of the wrist or a raised eyebrow, justifies au contraire.
Wednesday, 5 April 2006
feng shui
(fung SHWAY) noun
Describing the network of intangible influences, positive and negative, that some believe to operate in a place, knowledge of which is necessary in discovering the most propitious site for putting up a building, staging an event, etc.
[From Chinese feng (wind) and shui (water).]
Like ying and yang, feng shui is a new western import of an old philosophical or mythological idea from the other side of the world. In the east, feng shui may be used in siting graves, but in the west it seems to operate mostly at the home-improvement level. A pretentious term perhaps, but that's part of its marketing appeal.
Thursday, 6 April 2006
gestalt
Guest Wordsmith Philip Gooden writes:
Language gives a snub to borders in a way that is denied to any other human invention. There are no controls or checks to prevent words from crossing boundaries, there are no duties to be paid when phrases migrate from one culture to another. In the basic and simplest sense of the phrase, language is a free market. Among world languages, English has some claim to providing the freest market of them all, not only because it is compounded from a variety of sources but also because it has made itself open to linguistic influences from around the globe. It is interesting to see how the different languages have come to be deployed in different fields.
French is traditionally the language of diplomacy, of détente and démarche, but it is just as traditionally the language of sex and romance (billet doux; cinque à sept, describing the time late in the day when lovers traditionally meet). Latin, functional and precise, provides us with many of the abbreviations we still use (e.g., i.e., etc.) as well as a number of legal terms. From Spanish come a handful of "masculine" terms like macho and cojones. At times it is difficult to avoid the feeling that an entire culture may be contained within an expression that remains tantalisingly elusive even when translated. One thinks of the sombre northern European quality of the German Weltschmerz or the way an entire (Mediterranean) quality of life seems to be embodied in the Italian dolce far niente (literally, sweet doing nothing).
apparatchik
(uh-pah-RAH-chik) noun
Member of the (Soviet) bureaucracy; now extended to apply to any inflexible organisation man, particularly in a political party.
[From Russian apparat (apparatus, the government machine or structure) + chik (agent).]
Like other terms deriving from the USSR such as nomenklatura (list of important positions to be filled by people from the party), apparatchik is always used pejoratively. It suggests a bureaucrat who willingly follows and implements the party line, either in a spirit of blind obedience or one of cynical ambition. As an insult for a person sitting in an office, it's stronger and more exotic than "suit" or "jobs worth".
(Philip Gooden is a writer and editor, who produces historical whodunnits and writes reference books on the English language. He is the author of "Who's Whose?", "Faux Pas?" and the forthcoming "Name Dropping?". He lives in Bath, England.)
Language gives a snub to borders in a way that is denied to any other human invention. There are no controls or checks to prevent words from crossing boundaries, there are no duties to be paid when phrases migrate from one culture to another. In the basic and simplest sense of the phrase, language is a free market. Among world languages, English has some claim to providing the freest market of them all, not only because it is compounded from a variety of sources but also because it has made itself open to linguistic influences from around the globe. It is interesting to see how the different languages have come to be deployed in different fields.
French is traditionally the language of diplomacy, of détente and démarche, but it is just as traditionally the language of sex and romance (billet doux; cinque à sept, describing the time late in the day when lovers traditionally meet). Latin, functional and precise, provides us with many of the abbreviations we still use (e.g., i.e., etc.) as well as a number of legal terms. From Spanish come a handful of "masculine" terms like macho and cojones. At times it is difficult to avoid the feeling that an entire culture may be contained within an expression that remains tantalisingly elusive even when translated. One thinks of the sombre northern European quality of the German Weltschmerz or the way an entire (Mediterranean) quality of life seems to be embodied in the Italian dolce far niente (literally, sweet doing nothing).
apparatchik
(uh-pah-RAH-chik) noun
Member of the (Soviet) bureaucracy; now extended to apply to any inflexible organisation man, particularly in a political party.
[From Russian apparat (apparatus, the government machine or structure) + chik (agent).]
Like other terms deriving from the USSR such as nomenklatura (list of important positions to be filled by people from the party), apparatchik is always used pejoratively. It suggests a bureaucrat who willingly follows and implements the party line, either in a spirit of blind obedience or one of cynical ambition. As an insult for a person sitting in an office, it's stronger and more exotic than "suit" or "jobs worth".
(Philip Gooden is a writer and editor, who produces historical whodunnits and writes reference books on the English language. He is the author of "Who's Whose?", "Faux Pas?" and the forthcoming "Name Dropping?". He lives in Bath, England.)
Tuesday, 4 April 2006
au contraire
(oh kon-TRAIR) noun
On the contrary.
[From French au contraire (on the contrary).]
On the face of it, there seems no reason to prefer au contraire to "on the contrary". The meaning is obvious whether it's expressed in French or English. True, the French version is two words rather than three but the saving is minimal and beside the point. The value of au contraire, therefore, lies with the slightly camp context in which it's usually found. An earnest argument demands "on the contrary", but an opposing point of view, not meant too seriously and delivered with a flap of the wrist or a raised eyebrow, justifies au contraire.
Wednesday, 5 April 2006
feng shui
(fung SHWAY) noun
Describing the network of intangible influences, positive and negative, that some believe to operate in a place, knowledge of which is necessary in discovering the most propitious site for putting up a building, staging an event, etc.
[From Chinese feng (wind) and shui (water).]
Like ying and yang, feng shui is a new western import of an old philosophical or mythological idea from the other side of the world. In the east, feng shui may be used in siting graves, but in the west it seems to operate mostly at the home-improvement level. A pretentious term perhaps, but that's part of its marketing appeal.
Thursday, 6 April 2006
gestalt
(gesh-TALT) noun
Shape or pattern; most often used in psychology to describe a theory or approach which aims to see something as a whole rather than breaking it into separate parts
[From German gestalt (form, shape).]
Like a number of terms which are derived from psychology, gestalt has wandered away from its specialist or technical context even if it has not entered mainstream use in the way that "paranoid" or "schizophrenic" have (perhaps because it relates more to a method of approach or treatment than to a high-profile condition). With that said however, anybody employing gestalt in a non-specialist field should ask whether the word does anything that couldn't be achieved by a simpler term. In the Guardian example below, it might be argued that gestalt suggests the emotional and intellectual switch required to think differently -- in this case, that milk might be bad for you. But the sentence wouldn't really be affected if the word were left out altogether and it's difficult to avoid the impression that the writer has thrown it in to sex up the subject of milk.
Friday, 7 April
papabile
(pa-PA-bi-lay), also papable adjective
Eligible or suitable to become a pope; fitted for high office.
[From Italian papabile (worthy to be pope), from papa (pope) + -bile, equivalent to -ble (able).]
Papabile can be used literally about those cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church who are regarded as suitable candidates for thepapacy. By extension, the term can be applied to anybody aspiring to some exalted position, usually in government. It suggests not just that they are senior and capable enough but also that they have some aura of leadership. However, away from a Catholic context, the term seems a bit forced.
-Guest Wordsmith Philip Gooden
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