Alchemical Calques or the Transmutation of Language - Verbatim

32 Pages·2004·0.94 MB·English

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THE LANGUAGE QUARTERLY
Vol. XXIX, No. 2 Summer 2004
Editor: Erin McKean
Founding Editor: Laurence Urdang
Alchemical Calques or the Transmutation of Language
Rob Schleifer
New York, New York
I
n the fifth century , Empedocles of Acragas, Philologically, this occurrence, by which Greek
--
the Greek philosopher, proclaimed that the uni- pppeeemmmpppttteee ousia was translated, element by element, into
VVVEEERRRBBBAAATTTIIIMMM
verse was composed of four primal elements: fire, Latin quinta essentia, is known as a loan translation, or
air, water, and earth. While not, perhaps, the most calque, a word derived from French cccaaalllqqquuueee ‘‘aann iimmiittaa--
discriminating descriptive cosmology, this doctrine tion or tracing,’ insofar as one language is transposing
nevertheless dominated Western philosophical the elements of another language into its own ele-
thought for twenty-one hundred years and is today ments. French calque, in turn, is fashioned from the
still favorably regarded by born-again astrologists. French verb cccaaalllqqquuueeerrr ‘‘ttoo ttrraaccee oorr ccooppyy,,’’ wwhhiicchh iiss ddeerriivveedd
But it did not completely satisfy Aristotle, who, from the Italian verb cccaaalllcccaaarrreee ‘‘ttoo ttrraaccee oorr ttrraammppllee,,’’ iittsseellff
writing a century later, explained that while these an adoption of the Latin verb cccaaalllcccaaarrreee ‘‘ttoo ttrreeaadd oorr
four material elements could define all earthly sub- trample,’ which, for our purposes, finds its source in
stances, a fifth immaterial element must define all the Latin noun cccaaalllxxx ‘‘hheeeell,,’’ aass tthhaatt ppaarrtt ooff tthhee ffoooott tthhaatt
--
heavenly phenomena. He called this element pppeeemmmpppttteee does the trampling. As such, calques may very well
ousia, or ‘fifth being.’ be the philosopher’s stone of discourse, the elixir or
Nearly two millennia later, the medieval phi- mother’s milk of living language, an archeology of
losophers, busy transmuting lead into gold and knowledge, transmuting the violent trampling of
discovering the elixir of life, sought to translate translation into the intercourse of loan.
this expression into Latin. But classical Latin had Much can be discovered in this archeology.
no present participle meaning ‘being.’ Fortunately, The ancient Romans, as well as the Greeks, have
however, Cicero had remedied this problem in the provided English with a potpourri of picturesque
first century , averting this medieval embarrass- calques. Even at the dawn of Roman civilization,
ment by taking the existing Latin infinitive esse—an as a Tiberine she-wolf (Acca Larentia?) suckled
almost exact counterpart to Greek einai, the infini- Romulus and Remus, some inhabitant of the Italic
tive governing ousia—and extrapolating from it the peninsula may have gazed at the sky one night and
hypothetical Latin present participial base essent-, to fancied that faintly luminous band of stars overarch-
create the neologism essentia, which corresponds to ing the heavens to be a road or way of milk, or via
Greek ousia. Then, some fifteen hundred years later, lactea, a phrase that was translated by Chaucer in
the medieval philosophers prefaced this word with Middle English as mmmeeelllkkkyyy wwweeeyyyeee aanndd tthheennccee MMMiiilllkkkyyy WWWaaayyy,,
Latin quinta, ‘fifth,’ an ordinal number equivalent eventually passing into Modern English, where it
--
to Greek pppppeeeeemmmmmpppppttttteeeee,, establishing the Medieval Latin became a candy bar. Or instead, I would tender, the
phrase quinta essentia; and these two words eventu- Romans may have partially translated their via lactea
ally coalesced and passed into English as quintessence. from Eratosthenes’ kyklos galaxias ‘circle of milk,’
In this linguistic process the medieval philoso- from which we derive galaxy, now a generic term
phers had unearthed, seem- for the Milky Way, though formerly our specific
42> ingly without knowing it, term; and kyklos galaxias may further be the source
a means of transmuting of our obsolete English calque, lacteous circle, which
the lead of a dead language would support this hypothesis. In any event, Latin
into the gold elixir of liv- lllaaaccc iiss ccooggnnaattee wwiitthh GGrreeeekk gala and English milk, all
0 7447 0 05855 7
ing discourse. three words having descended from the common
Page 2 V. XXIX, N. 
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Contents
Vol. XXIX, No. 2 Summer 2004
Articles
Alchemical Calques, or the Transmutation of Language Rob Schleifer p. 1
Bacronymic Etymythologies Douglas G. Wilson p. 5
Presidential Words Richard Lederer p. 8
I Didn’t Catch Your Name Robert M. Rennick p. 12
The Ethnocentricity of E-mail Simon Darragh p. 10
Lipograms: The Presence of Absence Susan Elkin p. 15
The Skinny on the Dictionary of One-Letter Words Craig Conley p. 17
HHHooolllyyy CCCrrraaapppooolllaaa!!! Mark Peters p. 19
Offending Words Gerald Eskenazi p. 21
Good Cop, Bad Cop Edmund Conti p. 29
Columns
As the Word Turns: Y, O Y Barry Baldwin p. 24
Horribile Dictu Mat Coward p. 25
Classical Blather: Whatsinames and Thingamajigs Nick Humez p. 26
Ex Cathedra Erin McKean p. 31
plus the crossword puzzle and some and
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V. XXIX, N.  Page 3
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prehistoric Indo-European base melg- ‘to stroke, to Übermensch. In short, what began linguistically as an
rub off,’ hence, ‘to milk,’ from which we acquire such accurate calque for a German concept transmogrified
English derivatives as lactate, emulsion, and lettuce. into something quite alien, an example, if you will,
But the Romans and Greeks are by no means our of semantic hypertrophy.
sole legators of calques. In 1891, Friedrich Nietzsche But few calques have degenerated so bizarrely
completed Also sprach Zarathustra, in which he elabo- in such a short a period. Religious calques, for
rated upon his conception of the Übermensch, that example, have remained relatively stable over the
rationally superior person who spurns conventional millennia, many of them deriving from the Hebrew
Christian “herd morality” and transmutes himself, oorr AArraammaaiicc llaanngguuaaggeess,, tthhee ffoorrmmeerr tthhee llaanngguuaaggee ooff
like a triumphant alchemist, to fully realize human the Old Testament, the latter the language spoken
potential and creative mastery. Yet in a second- when Christ lived.
ary transmutation, Nietzsche’s Übermensch, almost An enlightening religious calque is scapegoat.
immediately upon publication of Zarathustra, was Though no longer commonly associated with any-
misconceived as a man of extraordinary physical thing religious, it originally epitomized the atone-
strength with a juggernaut-like “will to power” ment of Yom Kippur in which Aaron, the high priest
over others. And in a tertiary transmutation, of the Jews, confessed the sins of his people upon the
George Bernard Shaw, in popularizing and recast- head of a goat, which was then allowed to “escape”
ing Nietzsche’s philosophy twelve years later, took into the wilderness, carrying away those sins.
on the task of translating Übermensch into English. But the goat . . . shall be presented alive before
But, evidently, he did not find the native rendering the LORD, to make an atonement with him,
of overman or beyondman sufficiently mellifluous and aaannnddd ttoo lleett hhiimm ggoo ffoorr aa ssccaappeeggooaatt iinnttoo tthhee wwiill--
instead translated the first element ÜÜÜbbbeeerrr iinnttoo iittss LLaattiinn derness. (Leviticus 16:10, KJV)
equivalent, creating for his new play and all posterity Scapegoat actually encompasses two calques and
that immortal, hybrid calque . . . Superman! is an example of those words that I call doublecalques
Faster than a speeding bullet! (with double pronounced dddooo——ooo’bl\, in the French man-
ner). The biblical scholar William Tyndale, in pre-
More powerful than a locomotive!
paring his 1530 translation of the Pentateuch, coined
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!
scapegoat as a calque of the Late Latin (Vulgate) caper
Look! Up in the sky!
emissarius ‘emissary goat,’ itself a calque of Hebrew
It’s a bird! It’s a plane!
-- -
‘‘‘aaazzzaaazeel, the name of a desert demon which, ety-
IT’S ÜBERMENSCH!
-- - -
mologically, was understood as ‘‘‘eeez ozelll ‘‘ggooaatt tthhaatt
Yes, it’s Übermensch, strange visitor from
departs’—whence emissary goat, whence scapegoat,
another philosophaster. Yet anyone who has had
whence any person, place, or thing that bears the
the pleasure of listening to that scholarly radio serial
blame for others.
of the 1940s featuring Bud Collyer, or of watching
A more complex religious doublecalque is
that intellectual television series of the ’50s starring
Holy Ghost. This derives from Middle English holi
George Reeves (not to be confused with his star- --
gost, which itself derives from Old English hhhaaalig
crossed successor of the ’70s and ’80s, Christopher -
gast—elements that can be traced, respectively,
Reeve) could not help but note the discrepancy
to Indo-European kailo- ‘whole, uninjured’ and
between the relatively temperate pronouncements
ggghhheeeiiisss---,, aann uunncceerrttaaiinn eelleemmeenntt eexxpprreessssiinngg aawwee oorr ffrriigghhtt..
of this commentator and the preternatural, quasi-
However, in ancient Hebrew, a language classified
omnipotent feats that this star character could (and
within the Afro-Asiatic family of languages, ruah
did) perform. Indeed, according to the original 1938 --
hhhaaa---qqqooodesh meant ‘holy spirit,’ which was later trans-
“magazine” (as the television voice-over euphemisti-
lated into Greek pneuma hagion and thence Latin
cally deemed it), this Pimpernel incarnate could do
spiritus sanctus. But not until the Roman missionaries
little more than “hurdle skyscrapers . . . leap an eighth
brought spiritus sanctus to the British Isles in the latter
of a mile . . . raise tremendous weights . . . [and] run
half of the first millennium did the English combine
faster than a streamline train,” all of which brings -- - -- -- -- --
hhhaaalig with gast to form hhhaaallliiiggg gggaaast. Thus, while hhhaaallliiiggg gggaaast,
him a lot closer to Nietzsche’s original, misconstrued
morphologically, is of Indo-European composition,
Page 4 V. XXIX, N. 
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semantically it is of Afro-Asiatic ancestry. Moreover, calques catachresticalques, after the Greek-derived rhe-
-- --
since hhhaaallliiiggg gggaaast is a doublecalque of spiritus sanctus and torical term catachresis, as defined, in one of its senses,
pneuma hagion, and spiritus sanctus is a doublecalque as ‘an incorrect use of a word, either from a misinter-
--
of pneuma hagion and rrruuuaaahhh hhhaaa---qqqooodesh, I christen Holy pretation of its etymology or a folk etymology.’
GGGhhhooosssttt aa multiple doublecalque. (It has been suggested Scapegoat, as we have seen, is an example of a
that HHHooolllyyy GGGhhhooosssttt bbee ddeessiiggnnaatteedd aa triplecalque; however, doublecalque, but it is also a catachresticalque inso-
such a neologism would needlessly obfuscate the far as Late Latin caper emissarius, of which ssscccaaapppeeegggoooaaattt iiss
terminology.) Tyndale’s English translation, is, in fact, a mistransla-
-- -
In contemplating multiple doublecalques, we tion of the Hebrew proper name ‘‘‘aaazzzaaazeel. And in a
must not overlook parallel doublecalques. Groundhog, parallel historical development, Greek tragos apopom-
-- --
Moreover, since hhhaaallliiiggg gggaaasssttt iiss aa ddoouubblleeccaallqquuee ooff spiritus sanctus and pneuma hagion,
--
and spiritus sanctus is a doublecalque of pneuma hagion and rrruuuaaahhh hhhaaa---qqqooodesh, I christen
HHHooolllyyy GGGhhhooosssttt aa multiple doublecalque.
for example, is commonly asserted to be a calque of paios, ‘goat sent out,’ of the Septuagint is also a mis-
Dutch aardvarken, which dissects into aaaaaarrrdddeee ‘‘ggrroouunndd,, iinntteerrpprreettaattiioonn ooff aanndd,, hheennccee,, aa ccaattaacchhrreessttiiccaallqquuee ooff
-- -
earth,’ and varken ‘hog, pig.’ But, significantly, a sec- ‘‘‘aaazzzaaazeel. So ssscccaaapppeeegggoooaaattt aanndd tragos apopompaios are clearly
-- -
ond calque representing an entirely different animal, parallel doublecatachresticalques of the Hebrew ‘‘‘aaazzzaaazeel.
the South African anteater (Orycteropus afer), is also But multiple doublecatachresticalques have also
translated from these same Dutch elements, though descended upon the English language. At about the
in this context it is reconstructed from its alterna- time the Hebrews were completing the Torah, the
--
tive English counterparts, earth and pppiiiggg.. SSoo groundhog Greeks were coining the phrase ooouuurrriiiooonnn oooooonnn ‘‘wwiinndd eegggg,,’’
and eeeaaarrrttthhh pppiiiggg aarree ppaarraalllleell ddoouubblleeccaallqquueess ooff DDuuttcchh to refer to certain eggs that do not hatch, presumedly
aardvarken, which not incidentally yields, through its because they are conceived by the wind. Subsequently,
seventeenth-century offspring language Afrikaans, this phrase was translated into Latin ovum urinum,
the loan of our more learned term for the earth-pig with the same meaning. But somewhere along the
anteater, aardvark. way Latin urinum ‘wind,’ became confused with Latin
But few calques have the vainglory of being uuurrriiinnnaaaeee ‘‘uurriinnee..’’ SSoo wwhhaatt bbeeggaann,, iinn GGrreeeekk,, aass aa wwiinndd eegggg
doublecalques. Indeed, a large number of what the was transmuted, in Latin, into a urine egg. Moreover,
mmmooobbbiiillleee vvvuuulllggguuusss ccaallll ccaallqquueess aarree nnoott lleeggiittiimmaattee ccaallqquueess in Old English, the word for urine was adela, which
and plead for a new name. Antinovel, for example, contracted in Middle English to adel; and the Old
-
is an incomplete translation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s English word for egg was ææægg,, which transmuted, in
aaannntttiiirrrooommmaaannn ((tthhoouugghh tthhiiss tteerrmm wwaass uusseedd aatt lleeaasstt aass eeaarrllyy aass one of its Middle English incarnations, into eye. So
1627 by Charles Sorel) in which French rrrooommmaaannn iiss rreenn-- the compound aaadddeeelll---eeeyyyeee ‘‘uurriinnee eegggg’’ eemmeerrggeedd iinn MMiiddddllee
dered by English novel, but in which the aaannntttiii rreemmaaiinnss English, of which the eeeyyyeee llaatteerr ddrrooppppeedd oouutt,, yyiieellddiinngg,,
unchanged. X-ray, likewise, is a partial rendering of once again, a solitary Middle English adel. And this
Wilhelm Roentgen’s X-strahl, in which German Strahl word passed into Modern English as addle.
translates to English ray, but the X, being an inter- So the next time you call someone addlebrained
national algebraic symbol for the unknown, remains or addlepated, smile to yourself, for you are saying
intact. Such compounds, then, in which at least one more about that person than that person might
major element is nnnooottt ttrraannssllaatteedd ffrroomm tthhee oorriiggiinnaall,, II suspect. And smile again, for you’re articulating an
designate as demicalques. And certain of these words alchemical calque, that quintessence of loan—which
and phrases, as tall oil, which is a demicalque of transmutes material as heavy as lead and as light as
German Tallöl, which itself is a demicalque of Swedish the wind into the golden immaterial elixir of living
tallolja, are, in fact, doubledemicalques. language.
But a more captivating category of calques [Rob Schleifer is a Random House author. His last
involves those words in which at least one major ele- article for “A Nocturnal View of the Lunar
ment is mistranslated from the original. I call these LLaannddssccaappee”” aappppeeaarreedd iinn XXXXVVIIII//33.. ]]
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V. XXIX, N.  Page 5
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Bacronymic Etymythologies abbreviated to form an acronym, an existing word is
chosen first as the target acronym and a phrase is
Douglas G. Wilson devised to match it. For example, the name “North
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Atlantic Treaty Organization” presumably dictated
its “honest” acronym NATO. On the other hand,
the awkward expression “Cooperative for American
A neologistic title: but wait, I can explain. First,
Relief Everywhere” presumably was contrived spe-
what is an acronym? There are various definitions.
cifically to justify the previously chosen bacronym
According to the most restrictive one, an acronym is
CARE. Not all bacronyms are as flagrant as this one
a word that is spelled using the first letter of each of
(although some are even worse); often in modern
a series of words and that is pronounced as if it were
times some “discreet” alteration of a proposed name
an ordinary word (i.e., generally, not pronounced as
is performed simply to facilitate the formation of a
if spelled out). For example, NNNAAATTTOOO iiss aann aaccrroonnyymm ooff
nifty acronym, and there are many borderline cases
“North Atlantic Treaty Organization.” The full phrase
in which it is not clear which was chosen first, the
(in this case, “North Atlantic Treaty Organization”)
acronym or its expanded form. (There is also an
can be called the expansion of the acronym. This nar-
apparent spelling variant, backronym.)
rowly defined type can be called a letter acronym. Even
In the investigation of word origins or etymolo-
within this type there is some variation in that small
gies, it is often suggested that a word originated as
words such as and, of, or ttthhheee mmaayy bbee eeiitthheerr rreettaaiinneedd oorr
an acronym. In modern times such an etymology is
omitted when making the acronym: thus “National
often genuine: for example jato, scuba, sonar, moped,
Aeronautics and Space Administration” gives NASA
and napalm are truly and transparently acronymic in
(rather than NAASA), but “President of the United
origin. Very likely snafu is genuine as well. It is inter-
States” gives PPPOOOTTTUUUSSS ((nneevveerr PUS). Good practice
esting to note, however, that the acronym is almost
requires, I think, that the acronym be formed using
entirely a recent phenomenon in English.1 Acronyms
an internally consistent standard in this respect; one
in English were relatively infrequent before World
should keep all the small words or drop them all;
War II and extremely rare before World War I.
needless to say, this rule is not observed strictly in real
The word acronym itself has existed only since about
life. Initialisms that are spelled out in speech do not
1943: few acronyms were conventionally used much
qualify as acronyms according to my usage: thus, for
earlier. Initialisms such as O.K. are much older, and
example, AAATTTMMM ffaaiillss ttoo qquuaalliiffyy ssiinnccee iitt iiss pprroonnoouunncceedd
there was quite a craze for such abbreviations in the
“A, T, M” rather than atom. I try to ignore such gro-
U.S. in the late 1830s, but these were pronounced
tesqueries as FNMA (pronounced Fannie Mae) for
by spelling, and O.K. is still okay and not ock. It is
“Federal National Mortgage Association” (perhaps I
sometimes said that Seroco for “Sears, Roebuck and
could call this an aggronym).
Company” was the first genuine English-language
Usually a less restrictive definition is employed,
acronym, first used around 1900 or slightly earlier.
permitting the first syllable or the first group of let-
The true origin of a word can be acronymic; the
ters of a component word to be used rather than only
true origin cannot be fully bacronymic, however,
the first letter when constructing an acronym: thus
since a bacronym by definition precedes its expan-
rrraaadddaaarrr ffrroomm ““rraaddiioo ddeetteeccttiinngg aanndd rraannggiinngg”” iiss ccoonnssiidd--
sion. A bacronymic etymology sometimes provides
ered acronymic although it uses ra from radio, and
one of several common types of “etymythology.”
the Central Treaty Organization is permitted the
The word etymythology refers to false etymology that
acronym CENTO. A syllable acronym is one that has
is associated with a myth or story “explaining” the
no loose letters but only initial syllables: for exam-
origin of a word or phrase.2 Ridiculous etymytholo-
ple, “high fidelity” becomes hhhiii---fffiii aanndd ““mmoodduullaattoorr//
ggiieess aarree vveerryy ccoommmmoonn.. IInn rreecceenntt yyeeaarrss,, aa nnuummbbeerr ooff
demodulator” gives modem (liberties are taken with
stories about word and phrase origins have circulated
hyphenation, syllabification, and pronunciation in
widely by email. Some are despicable and offensive
many cases, including these).
and undocumented; others are simply undocument-
A bacronym is an acronym that is formed in a
ed. It goes without saying that almost all are false.
backward manner: instead of an existing phrase being
For some reason, false etymologies of the acronymic
Page 6 V. XXIX, N. 
VERBATIM
(bacronymic) type are particularly popular.3 Perhaps word meaning ‘half.’ The adjective in the modern
they are popular because anyone who can spell (even sense dates from about 1918 with certainty, so the
if completely ignorant of history, linguistics, etc.) acronymic origin is unlikely, verging on extremely
can follow such a story. unlikely. The next thing to seek is the documenta-
What is one to make, for example, of an asser- tion (for example, one of those tickets would be a
tion that the venerable F-word itself is originally an good start); the major dictionaries haven’t found any
acronym, based on “Fornication Under Consent supporting documentation, however, and neither
of the King” or perhaps “For Unlawful Carnal have any of a number of interested scholars over the
Knowledge”? Of course, usually some fable is pre- last several decades.
sented to support the etymology. The initial assess- Among the few true acronyms developed
ment of the claim is simple enough: if the word pre- before 1920 are Anzac, meaning “Australian and
dates World War II, an acronymic origin is unlikely; New Zealand Army Corps,” and AWOL, meaning
if it predates World War I, it’s extremely unlikely. ‘absent without leave.’ It is claimed that the abbre-
Another clue: if two completely different acronymic viation AAAWWWOOOLLL eexxiisstteedd iinn iittss mmooddeerrnn sseennssee aass eeaarrllyy
origins are put forth, it’s certain that one is bogus, as the American Civil War; this story doesn’t seem
and it’s pretty likely that both are. Still, one ought to unbelievable, although I don’t know of any convinc-
keep an open mind, and in this case I for one would ing evidence; however, it is highly doubtful that the
be willing to inspect the old documents supporting acronymic pronunciation was used in the 1860s,
the claim. What? There are none? What a surprise. since this type of pronunciation of an abbreviation
Well, then, one might (provisionally at least) take was not natural then. The spelled-out pronunciation
the word of a respected scholar as published in a “A, W, O, L”, sometimes still employed today, was
refereed journal. What? No such paper can be cited? the expected pronunciation before acronyms became
Imagine that. fashionable, and as late as 1929, as Mencken reports,
Bacronymic etymythologies that are frequently “George Philip Krapp’s curious declaration that
encountered and just as frequently debunked include a.w.o.l. was pronounced as one word, áwol, in the
those associated with the words tip (meaning ‘[give a] Army” was derided in print.4
gratuity’) and posh. The word tip in the current sense Recent words, particularly those that did not
seems to have developed from a sense like ‘light[ly] eexxiisstt bbeeffoorree WWoorrlldd WWaarr IIII,, aarree nnoott uunnccoommmmoonnllyy ooff
tap,’ and it dates from the early eighteenth century acronymic origin. But there are also many spurious
in this sense, making acronymic origin extremely acronymic etymologies presented for new words. In
unlikely by the chronological argument. The fables some cases, it is not possible either to confirm or to
suggest acronymic formation from such phrases as refute the acronym stories. I’ll present a few exam-
“to insure prompt service” and “to improve per- ples that have come to my attention; when no firm
formance.” Needless to say, documentation is not etymology is available, I’ll present my best guess.
forthcoming. In the broad field of information processing or
Supposedly “POSH” was printed on premium computer science, there are, of course, many true
tickets for round-trip sea passages from Britain to acronyms, including amusing ones such as the well-
India, denoting “Port Out[ward], Starboard Home.” established WWWYYYSSSIIIWWWYYYGGG ((pprroonnoouunncceedd ““wwiizzzzyy--wwiigg””))
Such a ticket supposedly would have entitled the ‘what you see is what you get.’ Often an “honest”
holder to a compartment on the port side of the ship acronym will be followed by a series of bacronyms,
during the trip to India and a starboard side accom- but usually there’s not much effort to disguise them.
modation on the return voyage. The accompanying For example, MMMUUUDDD ((rreeffeerrrriinngg ttoo vviirrttuuaall--eennvviirroonn--
fable may include reasoning about the desirability of ment software) is said to be an acronym for “multi-
such an arrangement, which might optimize venti- uusseerr dduunnggeeoonn”” oorr ““mmuullttii--uusseerr ddiimmeennssiioonn””;; oonnee ooff
lation or minimize exposure to the tropical sun or these may be an honest expansion, but I don’t know
provide a better view. The actual etymology of posh with certainty. Its descendents, however, are clearly
is uncertain, but posh was nineteenth-century slang frivolous bacronyms, including MMMUUUCCCKKK ‘‘mmuullttii--uusseerr
meaning ‘fop’ or ‘dandy’ and also ‘money,’ suppos- created kingdom’ and MMMUUUSSSHHH ‘‘mmuullttii--uusseerr sshhaarreedd
eeddllyy ssppeecciiffiiccaallllyy ‘‘hhaallffppeennnnyy,,’’ ppoossssiibbllyy ffrroomm aa RRoommaannyy hallucination.’ The transitive verb mmmmmmuuuuuunnnnnngggggg ((((uuuunnnnrrrreeeellllaaaatttteeeedddd
V. XXIX, N.  Page 7
VERBATIM
to these), meaning to modify (usually for the worse) AAss aa ffiinnaall eexxaammppllee tthhaatt hhaadd aa bbrriieeff ppeerriioodd ooff
or disable or destroy, was in my opinion probably notoriety in recent years, consider ccchhhaaaddd mmeeaann--
invented around 1960 based on the earlier slang noun ing ‘paper fragment,’ often denoting small pieces
mmmuuunnnggg ((wwhhiicchh wwaass eeqquuiivvaalleenntt ttoo ‘‘ccrruudd’’)).. TThheerree iiss aa punched out of cards or paper tapes in various appli-
claimed acronymic etymology based on “mash until cations (including the obsolete Hollerith card and
no good,” which surely smells bad to me; of course the archaic paper ballot). The claimed acronymic
the alternative recursive (self-referential) acronym origin of ccchhhaaaddd iiss ““ccaarrdd hhoollee aaggggrreeggaattee ddeebbrriiss..”” TThhee
from “mung until no good” can only be a bacro- word ccchhhaaaddd sseeeemmss ttoo bbee rreellaatteedd ttoo ccoommppuutteerrss,, ssoo iitt’’ss
nym. There are other recursive acronyms (generally presumably recent enough to have had a genuine
obvious jokes), including the famous GGGNNNUUU ((wwhhiicchh iiss acronymic etymology. A little research, however,
pronounced g’nu, with the GGG ssoouunndd iinnttaacctt,, lliikkee Gnu quickly reduces the plausibility of this etymology.
in German), standing for “GNU’s not Unix!” As The earliest instances of this word ccchhhaaaddd ((aass ffaarr aass II
an example of the rapidity with which patently false know) are several dating from between 1939 and
acronyms appear, note the recent bacronymic analy- 1950. In all of these cases the word refers to debris
sis of the word spam, meaning “unsolicited bulk that is not from a card but rather from a paper tape
e-mail.” This term is only about a decade old, and used in telegraphy. Furthermore, the word was not
its origin is well understood (from a Monty Python used for an aggregate; in fact, it usually appeared in
skit in which the trade name Spam was employed). the plural form chads in these early citations. The
Nonetheless, bacronyms such as “self-propelled bacronym presumably was promulgated after key-
advertising message” have been put forth. punch cards had become more familiar than telegra-
In the field of medicine there are of course phy tape, certainly not much before 1960, and after
numerous true acronyms. There are also acronyms the word had been reinterpreted (likely through an
in associated slang or informal jargon, and some of intermediary term such as chad box) as (optionally)
these have false etymologies. For example, consider an uncountable noun referring to a mass of debris.
the group of derogatory epithets for obnoxious or The true etymology is not firmly established; how-
undesirable patients (or other persons). The best ever, I tentatively believe there is reason to equate
known, gomer, is said to stand for “Get out of my this word with an older dialectal word, ccchhhaaaddd oorr chat,
emergency room!” This etymology has a false ring which referred to various small items or fragments,
to it, it is not supported by the early record, and I originally probably catkins (whence the form of the
don’t believe in it, but the true etymology is not word) but extended to cover stones, twigs, etc.5
definitely established. I’m a little more certain about Some questions I cannot answer at all. Who
toad; this is a conventional epithet meaning more or invents the etymythologies? And why? Do they
less “repulsive [little] creature.” The purported acro- originate as serious speculations, or as deliberate
nymic origin from “trashy old derelict” is inept in jokes, or in both ways?
sense and also in construction since it doesn’t even The subject of acronymic etymologies is addressed
provide the observed pronunciation, and it is surely at several sites on the Web.6 The topic of acronyms
false in my opinion. Perhaps a better (although in general receives an amusing popular treatment in
probably still false) acronymic etymology exists, a book by Don Hauptman, Acronymania.7
using something like “trashy old alcoholic derelict,”
but I haven’t seen an assertion to this effect myself. Notes
There are harsher epithets, which I will omit, and 1. The acronym tradition is considerably older in some other
languages. Old acronyms based on Hebrew sometimes go by
there are less harsh ones, such as the probably at least
the name notaricon (or notarikon). Do “consonantal” alpha-
partly genuine double acronym “LLLOOOLLL iinn NAD” for
bets such as the Semitic ones lend themselves more readily
“little old lady in no apparent distress” (sometimes
to acronyms? Probably, since any set of letters (i.e., of con-
“. . . acute distress”), where the NNNAAADDD iiss ppoossssiibbllyy aa sonants) in such a system is pronounceable, with routinely
bacronym based on the probably genuine acronym interpolated vowel sounds. Tanach,, tthhee EEnngglliisshh rreennddiittiioonn ooff
NAD, meaning “no acute/active disease,” which is the Hebrew word for the “Old Testament,” is apparently
originally acronymic in Hebrew, based on Torah + Nebhi’im
sometimes used in seriousness as a casual summary
+ Kethubhim ‘Pentateuch plus Prophets plus Hagiographa’
of a patient’s evaluation.
Page 8 V. XXIX, N. 
VERBATIM
(kabbalists and others, please forgive my casual transcrip- Presidential Words
tion and disregard for the diacritical marks). The fish as a
Christian symbol is said to be from an acronym in Greek Richard Lederer
(Jesus Christ Son of God Savior, written in Greek “Iesous San Diego, California
Christos Theou Yios Soter,” giving the acronym ichthys,
meaning ‘fish’); but some claim it’s a bacronym. There were
early acronyms used as noms de plume in English—such as Perhaps the most useful expression of universal
the famous bacronymic CCCaaabbbaaalll ((ccaa.. 11667700)),, aanndd tthhee ppeeccuulliiaarr communication ever devised, OK is recognizable and
Smectymnuus (1641), which appears in the Oxford English pronounceable in almost every language on earth.
DDDiiiccctttiiiooonnnaaarrryyy aanndd tthhee Encyclopaedia Britannica—but apparently OK iiss ssoo pprrootteeaann tthhaatt iitt ccaann ffuunnccttiioonn aass ffiivvee ppaarrttss ooff
this was the limit for acronyms in English until recently . . .
speech—noun: “I gave it my OK”; verb: “I’ll OK
or is there a counterexample?
it”; adjective: “He’s an OK guy”; adverb: “She sings
2. The fine word etymythology apparently was introduced
OK”; and interjection: “OK, let’s party!”
recently by Laurence Horn of Yale University in discussions
under the aegis of the American Dialect Society. The explanations for the origin of OK have been
3. Fortunately for me, the most repulsive of the recent as imaginative as they have been various. But the late
etymythologies (those that deal with the slave trade, with Allen Walker Read proved that OK did not derive
lynchings, and with the Black Plague, for example) mostly
from okeh, an affirmative reply in Choctaw; nor from
are not of the bacronymic type, so I can avoid any further
the name of chief Old Keokuk; nor from a fellow
discussion of them except to note in passing that they too
named Orrin Kendall, who manufactured a tasty
are generally entirely bogus and without merit.
brand of army biscuit for Union soldiers in the Civil
4. H.L. Mencken, The American Language: Supplement II,
New York: Knopf, 1948, p. 379. War; nor from the Haitian port Aux Cayes, which
5. This chad as a variant of chat appears in the English Dialect produced superior rum; nor from open key, a tele-
Dictionary, for example, but consider these excerpts from a large graph term; nor from the Greek olla kalla, ‘all good.’
American general dictionary, the CCCeeennntttuuurrryyy DDDiiiccctttiiiooonnnaaarrryyy ((11888899))::
Rather, as Professor Read pointed out in a series
“““cchhaadd2 (chad), n. [E. dial. var. of chat4, q. v.] 1. A dry twig:
of articles in American Speech, 1963–64, the truth is
same as chat4. . . . [Prov. Eng. . . . , usually in plural.]”
“““cchhaatt4 (chat), n. [A particular use of chat3, a catkin, or . . . .] more politically correct than any of these theories.
1. A twig; a little stick; a fragment.” He tracked down the first-known published appear-
This ccchhhaaaddd iiss aann EEnngglliisshh pprroovviinncciiaalliissmm,, ooff ccoouurrssee,, bbuutt wwhhaatt ance of OK with its current meaning in the Boston
jjjaaarrrgggooonnn wwwooouuulllddd bbbeee eeexxxpppeeecccttteeeddd tttooo bbbeee mmmooorrreee cccooosssmmmooopppooollliiitttaaannn ttthhhaaannn MMMooorrrnnniiinnnggg PPPooosssttt oonn MMaarrcchh 2233,, 11883399:: ““TThhee ‘‘CChhaaiirrmmaann
that of telegraphy? The plural word chats meaning gravel of the Committee on Charity Lecture Bells’ is one
or mine tailings is used in the United States; I believe it
of the deputation, and perhaps if he should return
is probably essentially the same word originally. The Scots
to Boston, via Providence, he of the Journal, and
word ccchhhaaaddd mmeeaanniinngg gggrrraaavvveeelll iiss lliikkeellyy cclloosseellyy rreellaatteedd..
his train-band, would have the ‘contribution box,’
6. One good site is “Wilton’s Word and Phrase Origins,”
(www.wordorigins.net) where there are discussions of the et ceteras, o.k.—all correct—and cause the corks to
bacronyms gay, golf, cop, cabal, and caucus, for example. fly, like sparks, upward.”
7. Don Hauptman, Acronymania New York: Dell, 1993. Read demonstrated that OOOKKK ssttaarrtteedd lliiffee aass aann
obscure joke and through a twist of fate went to
tthhee ttoopp ooff tthhee cchhaarrttss oonn tthhee AAmmeerriiccaann hhiitt ppaarraaddee ooff
words. In the 1830s, in New England, there was a
From the Summer 2004 issue of Art & Antiques:
craze for initialisms, in the manner of FYI, PDQ,
“Art mogul Charles Saatchi considers the works
aka, and TGIF, so popular today. The fad went so
consumed in the East London Momart warehouse
far as to generate letter combinations of intention-
SfireI Cirre!pl aSceaIbCle in! tSheI hCisto!ry of British art. ‘Hell,’ ally comic misspellings: KG for ‘know go,’ KY for
2000, a 28-square-foot installation with hundreds
‘know yuse,’ NNNSSSMMMJJJ ffoorr ‘‘’’nnoouugghh ssaaiidd ’’mmoonngg jjeennttllee--
of toy Nazis, by Jake and Dinos Chapman, is one
men,’ and OOORRR ffoorr ‘‘oollll rroonngg..’’ OOOKKK ffoorr ‘‘oollll kkoorrrreecctt’’
of many pieces that set the art world aflame. Now
naturally followed.
a glob of burnt plastic, Saatchi reportedly spent
Of all those loopy initialisms and facetious
$900,000 for the piece.”
misspellings, OK aalloonnee ssuurrvviivveedd.. TThhaatt’’ss bbeeccaauussee ooff
[Submitted by Julie May, Los Angeles, California,
a presidential nickname that consolidated the let-
who says “Poor Saatchi! I hope he can be restored.”] ters in the national memory. Martin Van Buren,
V. XXIX, N.  Page 9
VERBATIM
elected our eighth president in 1836, was born in tion eventually became the Ideal Toy Company.
Kinderhook, New York, and, early in his political “They claim to have written to T. R. for per-
career, was dubbed “Old Kinderhook.” Echoing mission and to have received a response from T. R.,
the “Oll Korrect” initialism, OK became the rally- saying, ‘I don’t know what my name may mean to
ing cry of the Old Kinderhook Club, a Democratic the bear business but you’re welcome to use it,’’’ said
organization supporting Van Buren during the 1840 John A. Gable, executive director of the Theodore
campaign. Thus, the accident of Van Buren’s birth- Roosevelt Association. “Alas, the letter was lost.’’
place rescued OOOKKK ffrroomm tthhee dduussttbbiinn ooff hhiissttoorryy.. The bear was a prominent emblem in Roosevelt’s
The coinage did Van Buren no good, and he was successful 1904 election campaign, and teddy’s bear
defeated in his bid for reelection. But the word hon- was enshrined in dictionaries in 1907. Clifford
oring his name today remains what H. L. Mencken Berryman could have made a million dollars had he
identified as “the most shining and successful chosen to sell his idea to a toy manufacturer, but he
Americanism ever invented.” refused, saying, “I have made thousands of children
Stuffed bears were popular before Theodore happy; that is enough for me.”
Roosevelt came along, but no one called them teddy
bears, not until November, 1902, when the presi-
dent went on a bear hunt in Smedes, Mississippi.
Roosevelt was acting as adjudicator for a border dis-
pute between the states of Louisiana and Mississippi.
On November 14, during a break in the negotia-
tions, he was invited by Southern friends to go bear readers with email access are
hunting. Roosevelt felt that he could consolidate his probably already receiving several word-a-day
supporters in the South by appearing among them emails, including Anu Garg’s (wordsmith.org),
VERBATIM
in the relaxed atmosphere of a hunting party, so he OPaulB MIcTFeEdriRes’s D(worIdsCpy.cTomA), and maybe even
accepted the invitation. a weird word a day from ’’ss eeddiittoorr
During the hunt, Roosevelt’s friends cornered a (http://www.oup-usa.org/mailman/listinfo/us-weirdand
bear cub, and a guide roped it to a tree for the presi- wonderful-l).
VVVEEERRRBBBAAATTTIIIMMM
dent to shoot. But Roosevelt declined to shoot the However, if you still have room in your in-box,
cub, believing such an act to be beneath his dignity Grant Barrett, the project editor for the Historical
as a hunter and as a man: “If I shot that little fellow I Dictionary of American Slang, has started a new site for
couldn’t be able to look my boys in the face again.” the words he comes across in his off-hours, “Double-
That Sunday’s WWWaaassshhhiiinnngggtttooonnn PPPooosssttt ccaarrrriieedd aa ccaarrttoooonn,, Tongued Word Wrester,” at doubletongued.org, where
drawn by Clifford Berryman, of President Theodore you can sign up for another daily email.
Roosevelt. T. R. stood in hunting gear and with Recent emails have included the words Yuma ‘In
rifle in hand with his back turned toward the cow- Cuba, a nickname for the United States,’ smitty ‘a
ering cub. The caption read, “Drawing the line in type of automobile muffler known for its (powerful
Mississippi,” referring both to the border dispute and or resonant) sound,’ noodle ‘to hunt bare-handed in
to animal ethics. water for fish or turtles,’ sousveillance ‘‘tthhee wwaattcchhiinngg ooff
Now the story switches to the wilds of Brooklyn the watchers by the watched; countersurveillance by
and Morris and Rose Michtom (rhymes with vic- people not in positions of power or authority,’ zhing-
tim), Russian immigrants who owned a candy store, zzzhhhooonnnggg ‘‘mmeerrcchhaannddiissee mmaaddee iinn AAssiiaa;; cchheeaappllyy mmaaddee,,
where they sold handmade stuffed animals. Inspired inexpensive, or substandard goods,’ and murderabilia
by Berryman’s cartoon, Rose Michtom made a toy ‘collectibles from, by, or about murders, murderers,
bear and displayed it in the shop window. The bear or violent crimes. Also murderbilia.’ The emails pro-
proved enormously popular with the public, and the vide links to the site, where full citations are given.
Michtoms began turning out stuffed cubs labeled Well worth adding to your daily to-read list.
Teddy’s Bear, in honor of our twenty-sixth president. —Erin McKean
As the demand increased, the family hired extra
seamstresses and rented a warehouse. Their opera-
Page 10 V. XXIX, N. 
VERBATIM
The Ethnocentricity of Email vocative case.” The writer evidently neither knew
nor cared that the vocative case was in regular daily
Simon Darragh use throughout Greece, not to mention Cyprus,
Greece Sydney, and Camden Town. No wonder Greeks are
so touchy.
But surely Greek is written with another alpha-
HELO!!!
bet? Yes, but you can’t conveniently tap out emails
SOU EYXOMAI PERASTIKA GIA OTI
in other alphabets. Even if you always send your
EPATHES! H DIEYTHINSH MOU EINAI . . . .
message as an attachment, you can’t be sure that the
PERIMENO! BYE-BYE
recipient will have a Greek font in his computer, or
That, with the omission of a few personal
even that the same keystrokes on one computer will
details, is the text of an email I received recently.
give the same letters on another. Until everyone uses
Here’s another from the same person:
Apple Macs as God intended, sending Greek from
TI KANEIS RE SIMON? SYGNOMY POU
one computer to another will continue to produce
ARGEISA NA SOU APANTHSO ALA DEN
Double Dutch. Because of these difficulties, I’ve
ELENXO TA E-MAIL VERY OFTEN. HOW
carefully avoided using any Greek letters at all in
ARE YOU AND WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
this article. What I really needed for my title was a
I’M IN LIVERPOOL AND I’M STUDDING SAN
word like Alphabetocentricity.
TRELH!!!!!!!!! DISTIXOS DEN THA MPORESO
To overcome the problem, Greek users of email
NA ERTHO GIA THN DOULIA EXO TOSO
have developed a phonetic transliteration into the
POLY DIABASMA GIA TIS EXETASEIS
roman alphabet, resembling that used in phrase
META TA XRISTOUGENA KAI PREPEI NA
books for English-speaking tourists, whose writers
DOULEPSO FULL TIME STO ESTIATORIO!!
are convinced, probably rightly, that English speak-
BUT THANK YOU ANYWAY!!!
ers would rather learn wildly incorrect pronuncia-
PERIMENO NEA SOU SOON O.K? MANY
tions than another alphabet. The two alphabets are,
KISSES . . . .
after all, very similar, especially in the upper case;
And here, leaving out the name of the addressee,
many Greeks, especially those less literary, like to
is one of my replies:
keep the caps lock key firmly depressed. The trouble
Pos paei, . . . mou; opos uposxethika, sou exo
is, very often the letters only look the same; they
steilei ena gramma me to saliggari taxudromeio.
don’t sound the same. Beta, gamma, and delta, for
Agapi kai filia, Saïmon.
instance, are pronounced not like our B, G, and
So what’s the language? It seems to contain a few
D, but like, respectively, our V, something like our
English words, such as Helo (sic) and Bye-bye, or per-
Y but with a slight closing of the throat, and like
haps the writer is showing off her English. Church-
our voiced TH. Indeed, the pronunciation as B, G,
going readers may recognize AAAgggaaapppiii bbuutt eexxppeecctt aann e
and DDD iiss aa ssttaappllee ooff GGrreeeekk ccaarrttoooonniissttss wwaannttiinngg ttoo
rather than an i. My name is Simon; why the odd
represent the barbaric (varvariko) speech of foreign-
spelling Saïmon?
ers. Since no single letters represent these sounds
Well it’s Greek, but not as we know it. And I’d
in Greek, they have to use the diphthongs mu pi,
better say at once that by “Greek” I mean “the lan-
gamma kappa, and ni tau.
guage spoken by Greeks.” It’s necessary to state what
How does all this work for a Greek writing an
seems obvious because many people who ought to
email? Vaguely, and not very well. Take the word
know better think “Greek” means “a dead language
DIEYTHINSH from the first example. It’s a trans-
that used to be taught in some Northern European
literation of the Greek word for ‘address,’ and it’s
schools, and which bears a structural, but almost no
pronounced ‘The eff sin thi,’ the first th being voiced
phonetic, similarity to a language which was spoken
and the second not. Thus the D represents a Greek
two thousand years ago by a minority of the inhab-
delta, the EEEYYY tthhee GGrreeeekk vvoowweell ddiiggrraapphh eeppssiilloonn uuppssii--
itants of what is now called Greece.” At about the
lon (which is pronounced, in this case, ‘eff’), the TH
time of these two e-mails I read in the Guardian that
represents a Greek theta, and the final HHH rreepprreesseennttss aa
something or other was “As outmoded as the Greek
Greek ita, one of Greek’s many i sounds. In this last