As followers of Lewis Carrol will recognise, I have borrowed a few of his words to
introduce this, my first TandSS blog. And for Carroll purists, I have included a
complete quote later.
This first blog is a little more weighty, or do I mean pompous, than those which might follow.
Future blogs will cast a sideways, or possibly headlong, glance
at some of the strange and sometimes devious happenings in the world of
marketing.
However, for this first blog I wanted to get something off my chest that, whilst
not original,still rankles and has not been completely dislodged by other writers.
You may have read a recent article in the Guardian by Johann Hari where he
talks about the way that seemingly innocent phrases often hide a quite
sinister reality. During the Vietnam War, news reports routinely referred to
‘collateral damage’ as a euphemism for the killing of innocent civilians.
Hari goes on to mention similar examples, although he omits one of my
own particular dislikes. A word which I will come to in a short while.
‘When I use a word,‘ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’
When I talk of damage to words, I am not talking about the temporary injuries, often inflicted by the young, and the consequent rehabilitation that will be needed for ‘Cool’, ‘Wicked’ and ‘Sick’.
I am talking about words which have started to be battered, disfigured and forced into a state where even the O.E.D. would barely recognise them.
I feel for these words. What have they done to deserve such a fate. Maybe they will survive, but maybe it’s too late.
Like many who have fallen on hard times, we should not put the blame solely on their shoulders, but look instead to the company they keep, and their consequent failure to establish themselves in decent society.
Who are these outcasts?
Let me start with just two words. Words which have become so damaged they now require immediate resuscitation
The first of these is ‘silverware’. Now perhaps this word is itself a bit of a mongrel, lacking any real pedigree and having no established lineage.
‘Silverware’ is in a particular group of words who have, well, put themselves about a bit. So perhaps they have brought it on themselves.
I first came across ’silverware’ in a McDonalds somewhere in America. As I was drinking my coffee, I heard someone at another table call out, ‘Don’t forget the silverware’.
This was not, as you may think, a plea for an employee to remember an award for ‘going large’.
No, the cry for ’silverware’ was for the white plastic utensils which for McDonalds, represent knives, forks and spoons. So ’silverware’ is the term for plastic cutlery.
The recent use of ’silverware’ by sports commentators in place of ‘cups’, ‘trophies’,'prizes’, ‘medals’, etc. only reconfirms the definition as ‘plastic cutlery’. And whilst on sports; just don’t get me started on ‘Impact Subs’.
Now for my second word.
A word which has its origin in art, drama and music. A word which enhances perception; it is the delivery (indeed the sensitive and thoughtful delivery) of a dramatic, musical, or artistic work.
Now in recent times, it has been cynically and wantonly perverted. It has been dragged from the concert hall and the theatre to the torture chamber.
The word is ‘rendition’.
Even as I type it, I feel a disgust at how some in society attempt to mask evil by dressing it in a word which in better times stood for higher social and spiritual values.
‘Rendition’ now has come to mean the forcible extraction of a person against their will (by western governments – for it is they who have used the word in this context – although possibly with the connivance of others) to a place of torture.
Shakespeare is credited with the creation of over one hundred new words. He would have found one that would not have required ‘rendition’ to be so misused.
After all, it was he who first coined the word ‘torture’.
It has been said that language is a living thing; it evolves, mutates and changes.
Let it do so on its own and not with the added topiary of distortion.