OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23061, 11 June 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

Random Notes and Little Problems

A SKED why a fisherman is called f\ an angler, I reply that the word means literally a "hooker." "Angle"'is the old English word for a fish-hook, now obsolete except in the old-fashioned phrase, "a brother of the angle." The verb was formed regularly from the noun. I may add that the surname Hooker meant a maker of hooks, not a fisherman. A "Fulsome" Mistake Not wishing to be unkind I suppress the name of the journal in which appeared the following words, forwarded to lno by a watchful correspondent: "Theatre-starved Aucklanders have enjoyed a fulsome meal since . . . opened at . . . last Saturday." Evidently the writer thought, and presumably still thinks, and will continue to think, unless this note should catch his eye, that "fulsome" means, as applied to a meal, "full," " enjoyable." The word really means "cloying, excessive, disgusting by excess (of flattery, servility, exaggerated affection)." More brains, please, more bruins I Meddling Spellers

1 have been asked why the verb "to indict," pronounced "indite," is so spelt. The answer is that long ago, both in French and in English, people adopted a more or less defined theory that the spelling of a word should show, wherever possible, its derivation. So they inserted a b in "doubt," an I in "salt," a p in receipt," and 1 in "would" and "should" (whence he crept into "could," the gate-crasher), and they put the c into the old verb "indite"' (not yet quite obsolete) to show its derivation from the low Latin verb "indictare." These intruding letters met with varying fates, both in French and English. Some remained in position, but were silent, like b in ''debt" and "doubt"; some were later thrown out, as the b was in the French forms of "debt" and "doubt", like the p in the old spelling "deceipt"; some, being there before the eye, came to be pronounced. like the 1 in "fault ' and in "realm". No order was observed, no law was formulated or obeyed, mere caprice and sheer luck ruled the roost, and the result is a very pretty muddle

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

and a fine rich field whence examiners in English can cull posers for their examinees. Not a negligible result, is it? " Worth While" Again The question, as put to me, is rather puzzling. The inquirer wants to kncrtV the derivation, and original or earlier meaning of "worthy" as contrasted with its meaning to-day. "Did it ever mean 'worth while?' " In reply I can only say that the meanings of "worthv" are now fairly numerous; "estimable, having some moral worth, of a fair degree of merit, respectable, etc,", according to the context and construction.

I should say that in ordinary use it seldom or never means exactly "worth while " (or as some will have it "worthwhile"), but in such forms as "worthy of attention, or remembrance" it approaches very near to "worth while", implying "having sufficient value to justify our devoting time, that is 'while', to it." In my experience, at any rate, the word "worthy" is seldom or never abused. Unreasonable Critics The critic who objects to "ice cream" and contends that we ought to say "iced cream", 1 regard as a "gnatstrainer"; let him send mo some camels. Ho wants me to scarify "awful" in its well-known colloquial uses, but I must keep my ammunition for heavier game. He would like to see the now-long-established "ereeki' for "stream" and "paddock" for 1 field 111 Australia and New Zealand thrown out, but 1 am no Quixote. Another very captious critic wants mc to tilt at several of his favourite bugbears, which cannot be done within so confined a space as this column; the mounted knight needs room. But 1 may deal with one of his black beasts. He' asks why Oxford should prescribe our pronunciation and in particular why it. should tell us to stress "monotonous" on "not" instead of stressing "ton". It would take too long to expound the reasons for this stressing, but 1 can assure the critic that it is quite'proper, in accordance with the laws which determine our pronunciation of words of this group, and that its correctness does not rest upon the dictum of Oxford, but is recognised by all authorities for the last two hundred years anc! justified by the practice of all good speakers of English.