A mallemaroking language

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33883, 1 July 1975, Page 16

A mallemaroking language

Those who delight in the possibilities of the English language will appreciate the joy of an editorial writer on the " Guardian ”, London, who recently tumbled across the word “ mallemaroking ” and found that it had a highly respectable ancestry and a precisely defined use "Mallemaroking” is the carousing of seamen in icebound ships; it comes from an obsolete Dutch expression which means a romping woman, and that in turn derived from a French expression, “ marotte ”, which meant a favoured object. The connections are obvious, once they are explained.

Many people whose daily bread depends on words delight in badgering those whose use of language leaves something to be desired. Journalists who write “ disinterested ” when they mean “ uninterested ”, or broadcasters who talk about •* pre-recorded ” programmes desene the reprimands of their seniors and the jeers of readers or listeners. The joys of discovery in language are less frequently admitted. That made the mallemaroking sailors all the more attractive. A senior journalist on the staff of “ The Press ” has been hoping during several winters for power failures on such a scale as to enable him to produce his own rival to •‘mallemaroking” — “lucubrating’’, which means “ reading and writing by candlelight Just as joyful is the achievement of the writer who manages to foist a new word on an unsuspecting community. A recent book review in “ The Press discussed the book “ Permissive Britain ” in which the author offers the wonderful word “ bumhug as an alternative to the traditional “humbug’. The English language is continually being enriched by these borrowings, revivals and manufactures. It needs to be protected from debasement by the propagandists, advertisers, and bureaucrats, whose purpose is to deceive, persuade, or obfuscate rather than to communicate.