Words and Phrases.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 2 October 1934, Page 6

Words and Phrases.

VyHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE between intermission and interval, asks a reader who has noted that intermission is taking the place of interval in cinemas. Intermission suggests temporary discontinuance, interruption, cessation or pause. In medicine it is an interval between the paroxysms of disease. Whatever intermits or is intermitted returns Again. An interval, in the sense of time, is that which intervenes between two points or periods of time, that is, an intervening season, or that which fills up such a time. You speak of the interval between Christmas and New Year. All honour to Dr Robinson Hall, who told a Magistrate yesterday that he did not know what the word intoxicated meant in a charge against a motorist. In medicine to intoxicate means to poison. To say that a man was poisoned in charge of a motor-car might bring an action for libel against the publican who supplied him with the intoxicant. The adoption of this word in the charge sheet for charges of drunkenness is Parliament's mealy-mouthed way of getting over the problem: When is a man drunk? TOUCHSTONE.