A couple of tricky fellows for you today – and ones that are often misspelled into the bargain. It’s two-for-one day at Word du Jour!
First up is one thing we can thank the artistes Bobby Brown and Britney Spears for (and if there are any others, it can’t be a very long list) their singing of “My Prerogative” brought the correct spelling to a wider audience. Prerogative is a word which is quite often misspelled on account of that strange R in between the P and the E. We can thank those crazy Romans for the strange spelling – it comes from the Latin prærogativa, originally the group of 100 voters who would be given the right to vote first in elections. The word came to be used in 17th century feudal times (via Old French) to mean a right or privilege bestowed upon a person or entity, a right which may or may not be in concurrence with common law. In case you were unaware, The Queen of England by default owns all the unmarked swans in the UK – an example of something known as royal prerogative. More often than not these days (as in the songs of Brown and Spears) it means a right to behave or carry yourself in the manner in which you see fit.
Continue reading Tricky
A smallish round-up of words and phrases appropriate for this week. As you may know, the period of Lent begins tomorrow, when Christians across the globe will fast (if they are particularly devout) or symbolically give something up in the forty day run-up to Easter. So, today is Shrove Tuesday – well, for Brits and Aussies it is. This is the day when, in times gone by, all the fats and sugary items in the house would be used up in preparation for the fast. Now it’s just an excuse to scoff lots of pancakes and feel sick. The word shrove is the past tense of shrive – a verb meaning “to grant remission of sins”. It actually follows Shrove Monday, which is something I didn’t know until I looked into it. It’s known as carnival in many European countries (Spain, Italy, Germany) and – more famously – Mardi Gras in South America and the USA. The name means “Fat Tuesday” and again refers to the feasting on fatty foodstuffs before the fast. I just realized the unintentional alliteration in the previous sentence. Nice.
Continue reading Timely Bits
There are many among you, dear readers, who are already aware of the oeuvres of Daphne Wayne-Bough. If not, then why not pay a visit to possibly the most stylish blog in Brussels? The reason for this outburst of bloggy philanthropism? Why, Daphne has provided a Word du Jour of her own for today’s dose of the intellectual version of a Vodka & Tonic. To say she needs no introduction would be a bit silly now I’ve written one, so I’ll settle for “here goes”:
NEW WORDS: TURPID
Continue reading A Word From Daphne – Turpid
