It's true that the pen is mightier than the sword
January 22, 2003 Edition -1
James Clarke
For some years now, on my PC which surpasseth all understanding, I have been receiving daily messages from Anu Garg of Cleveland, Ohio. He runs a fascinating service under the banner of Awad which is an acronym for "A Word a Day".
You can join, free, by calling up: http://wordsmith.org
Nowadays you don't even have to have a PC to enjoy Awad because Garg and his wife, Stuti, have produced a book A Word a Day (John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey). It is available in our better bookshops.
I correspond with Anu Garg but don't know much about him except that he can ride a unicycle and that he has a wife and a small daughter, Ananya.
Awad has a different theme each week - "bouquets of words", Garg calls them. One week's selection might be words that describe odds and ends.
Take that "insignificant thingy" at the end of a shoelace - it's called an "aglet".
And have you ever wondered about the word "tittle" as in "not caring a jot or a tittle"? A tittle is the dot above the letter i. Talking of tittles, I see that Garg uses the word "tidbits" whereas I write "titbits". I think it's American squeamishness. Like they won't say "lavatory". They say "bathroom", as in "Elmer, the dawg's gone to the bathroom on the rug again!"
Garg gives the history of all his words as well as their pronunciation and examples of their use.
He also offers tips. Example: there are two types of camels - dromedaries and bactrians. But which one has two humps? "Easy!" he says. "Notice the beginning letters: one bump in a D and two in a B."
And which goes up - a stalagmite or a stalactite? He points out that stalaGmites form on the Ground and stalaCtites hang from the Ceiling (I just remember that "mites" grow up and "tights" come down).
He says many words are used only in their negative form. We all know "insipid" but how many use the word "sipid" meaning savoury or having a pleasant taste? We know "impervious" but few use "pervious". Yet, it's a useful word.
I'd like to send Garg five common words that the English language worldwide has adopted from South Africa. In Afrikaans I can think of veld, Apartheid, trek, commando and wildebeest (and many other animals such as blesbok and springbok), but are there better examples?
Zulu has produced "ngana" - a cattle disease spread by the tsetse fly. The word "tsetse" is Tswana. Zulu has also given us "indaba", "impala", "nyala" and "mamba." Hottentots bequeathed "gnu" and "quagga". Can anybody suggest more?
Garg says Awad is "an expression of the joy of, the magic of words, the music of words".
He points out how the word "words" is an anagram of "sword" which is appropriate because, by selecting the right words, one "can cut through ambiguity and confusion like a sharp sword".
There's a lot of fun in this book. Consider "mondegreens".
How many librarians have been asked by youngsters for a book recommended by a teacher such as Charles Darwin's milestone work, Oranges and the Peaches?
The word was coined by Sylvia Wright of Harper's magazine, who for years cherished the sad but romantic image of the death of Lady Mondegreen, cut down with her lover at Edinburgh Castle.
Sylvia remembered it from the Scottish folksong, "They hae slain the Earl Ammuray/And Lady Mondegreen".
The line is actually, "They hae slain the Earl of Moray/And laid him on the green".
Awad is a participatory programme and one UK subscriber e-mailed to say his children sang "We can sing, full though we be!" The hymn's line is actually, "Weak and sinful though we be".
(You'll not find the US publishers in the telephone book but ring Carol Pepper on 082-322-2479).
