Et Cetera

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30610, 28 November 1964, Page 4

Et Cetera

[A Fourth Leader in "The Times”! The speaker who is addressing millions through a microphone in a casual talk or conversation has picked up the habit of ending a sentence with “and what have you?” He is not in fact inquiring about our possessions. He is tagging his query on to a list of nouns and indicating that he does not like using even the most familiar Latin and saying “et cetera.” Nor does he care to talk of the rest or employ such simplicity as “and so on.” He may alternate “what have you?” with “and whatever,” which implies that we may supply whatever we may think or want. Those speaking or writing less “off the cuff” have their more solemn ways of dodging “et cetera.” In rendering accounts. for example, the method is to include an item called Sundries. Auditors appear to take a kindly view of this evasion. Sundry is an ancient adjective, has its place in Prayer Book English, and has a respectable look. Even though the outlay so named may amount to quite a large amount, it is passed without details given. We may doubt whether chartered accountants would be so lenient if the list of expenditures ended with “and what have you?” But we live in changing times and must brush up our vocabulary to suit them. In the way of flippancy a favoured alternative to “et cetera” is “all that caper.” The subject concerned may be serious in its nature but can still evoke the image of lambs at play or dancers gaily rocking. A clergyman, for example, describing the difficulty of attracting a congregation in an area that was called “working class” related a conversation with one of the absentees. The recusant told him in vernacular terms that while he was interested in the moral teaching of the New Testament he had no use for doctrinal theology such as the Trinity and “all that caper.” Few parsons of today would name its third member the Paraclete and most are aware that the word Ghost can be disconcerting. Our enormous expenditure on education has not made biblical terms intelligible to all. So the “what have you?” kind of English snreads. It may even reach the meetings of boards and committees. Will the day come when the secretary compiling the agenda abandons the traditional “Anv Other Business” and invites the members to consider “Any Other Caper?”