Some Misused Words.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 193, 15 August 1931, Page 16

Some Misused Words .

“W 7 E DO NOT CONSIDER,” says the Prime Minister of Canada, in a despatch to Mr Forbes, “ that any such meticulous balance of advantages, or any endeavour to insure that one Dominion will not export to another more than it imports, would exhibit a true spirit of Imperial cooperation.” Meticulous is a word it would be better not to use. Its meaning is “ over-cautious, timid or fearful,” but it has been corrupted to mean “ fastidious or nice.” Meticulous has been described as a “ stiff, full-dress, literary or out-of-the-way word.” Newspapers correct the English of many public speakers, and nowadays you never see that little word “ sic ” slipped in after an incorrect word or phrase to convey a sneer or give a heavy assumption of superiority, But sometimes the reporters have no time to polish other people’s periods, and in self-defence they put quotation marks round the offending sentence and let it go at that. When a Christchurch man said yesterday, “ The new Unemployment Board will be in a similar position in regard to finance as the old board,” the whole sentence should have been recast, because “ similar as ” is impossible. He might have said “ in the position of the old board,” or “ in a similar position,” but the introduction of either “ same ” or “ similar ” created a little problem in syntax that was not easily straightened out. Many men complain of misreporting when the reporters have merely put the most merciful and rational construction possible on their utterances. TOUCHSTONE.