Words and Phrases.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20298, 7 May 1934, Page 6

Words and Phrases.

'T'O SETTLE AN ARGUMENT, writes A “Up a Tree,” and an old grievance under which I am still smarting, will you kindly answer the following question: If a man climbs a tree, can he climb down ? As a boy going to school I with others in the class was asked this question bv the headmaster, and I immediately replied that a man could climb a tree but he could not climb down. I held to my argument that a man could descend but not climb down a tree. I was told not to argue and given the strap because I persisted that I was right. Now will you settle this for good and relieve an old sore? The answer to this question will be found in a modern use of the word climb. Can an aeroplane be climbing if it is flying on a level course, or descending? The answer is No. Climbing means to ascend or mount laboriously: to ascend as if with effort; to rise to a higher point and (botanically) to ascend or creep upward by twining about a support. Even the word “ clamber ” implies ascent (laboriously, with hands and feet). The correspondent was right and the teacher was wrong. We hear of a climbdown, and climbing down, but they are merely American slang. You could not climb or clamber along the level branch of a tree. You might crawl or creep, but not climb. To come down from a tree has no single word better than descend. TOUCHSTONE.