Words and Phrases.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20328, 11 June 1934, Page 6

Words and Phrases.

WHY ARE PEOPLE so easily gulled by literary charlatans and mountebanks, especially in newspapers? Because, alas,' they mistrust their own knowledge and understanding, and imagine that anything beyond their comprehension must be a sort of adult educator. From there, unfortunately, it is an easy stage to that disgusting form of conceit which imagines that it is to one’s credit to be a subscriber to a newspaper that has a high average of seemingly deep or hidden meanings.

The truth should be far otherwise. As soon as a reader begins to lose touch with the meaning of sentences, or finds himself guessing at literary or artistic jargon, he should make one good resolution—that he will not be deceived any longer. That is one side of the picture. The other exhibits the writers who do not know the meaning of what they write. One instance will be enough. In a contemporary we are told that “ Americans, being unsophisticated, pre not good at putting over double intendre.” The writer, of course, meant “ double entendre,” which is the common form in which this old-timer But even then he was wrong, for the French phrase is ‘‘double entente” (ambiguity or double meaning), and anybody who uses entendre is a self-confessed ignoramus. TOUCHSTONE.