"PITCHED BATTLES."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 31, 6 February 1936, Page 6

"PITCHED BATTLES."

SOME HARD-WORKED WORDS. An American ca"l>le message tlie other day reported that escaped convicts and their pursuers waged "hard-fought pitched battles 111 the centres of two cities. This is one of many examples of the wrong usage of words in everyday writing and speaking. That American newsman did not stop to ask what a pitched battle is. A series of gun fights and wild chases carried on in motor cars certainly cannot be described accurately in those words. Popular phrases often stray far from their original meanings simply because they become so familiar and convenient that those who use them do so parrot fashion, without a thought 'behind it. Bannockburn was a pitched battle, because both armies pitched camp the previous day. That is sufficient, to make clear its original meaning. Another example of careless usage was a Southern paper's description of the deaths o three men in the Waitaki hydro-electric woiks pipe as a "holocaust." He should ha\o con suited his dictionary fiist. A described the "grandiose cliffs of Milfoul Sound. It would be hard to imagine a more horrible misdescription of such scenery. Ihe confusion of thought is obvious; he imagined "grandiose" was a kind of superlative of "grand." There arc so many ignorant or thoughtless abuses of words that one hesitates to_ chase them to their lairs, the task, or sport, is endlees. The radio has vastly increased the volume Of inaccurate English. "Negotiate is one of the hardest worked words. "So-and-so "negotiated" the ball brilliantly; another negotiated a goal, apparently jnst as one might negotiate a loan. The unfortunate pedestrian, one notes, had all but "negotiated the crossing" when the motor car bowled him over. Someone else lately "negotiated" the .ascent of Mount Hercules. I should like to "negotiate" the total excision of the word from the dictionaries, just to see how the announcers and the politicians and a mighty company would get along without it. But our popular novelists really are the worst offenders. Of muddled usage and of cliches and their sisters and cousins and aunts you can gather up from the average novel seven basketsfnl, or sepffty. The dear old "immaculate evening dress," I observe is still the popular wear for strong brave bronzed men. Even the modern woman on occasion is "immaculately groomed," presumably like Cuddle, ready for the race. Commercial phraseology, of course, is a semi-demi literature to itself; it is convenient and saves thinking; the commercial brain has quite enough to do without injuring itself in the search for correct English. The political speaker, too, has through long tradition come to cast his words in the mould best calculated to impress the ignorant. Mr. A. P. Herbert, in "Punch," mentioned the orator who I announces solemnly that he is "prepared to admit such a contingency." Then, says A.P.H., why not just admit it and save two or three 1 words ?—j.C.