Mind your language
`FOR YEARS,' writes Mr Tony Rus- sell Wayman plaintively from Plac- erville, California, 'I had smugly and priggishly assumed my superiority over those authors, proof-readers and edi- tors who slipped over the spelling of minuscule.' A widespread if not an entirely attractive habit of mind, Mr Wayman; what changed things?'
`On spotting what appeared to be an i error in TV Guide, I sent in a postcard pointing out that, while the publica- tion's error was not of the greatest importance, it certainly was not minis- cule. Then came the reply: "According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, miniscule is a variant spelling of minus- cule. We appreciate the interest which prompted you to write."' Collapse of stout Wayman. Or should it be? For the Oxford English Dictionary also records miniscule as a variant of minuscule (with citations from the past 100 years), but it adds: `Erroneous'. So stick that in your Web- ster's New Collegiate Dictionary. That sentence, 'We appreciate the interest which prompted you to write,' is a nice example of the official register of language thought suitable to let loose on the public at large. I have just run into a 'This is a preferred NO SMOK- ING area' in a station refreshment room. One knows what they mean, but really! Then, on Clapham Junction station there is a public notice telling passen- gers (sorry, customers) how to use the stairs, a device with which many are presumably ill-acquainted. It begins with the injunction 'Be safe', which, as far as I know, has lately won favour as a fatuous greeting in North America. We should all like to be safe, but the matter is largely out of our hands.
Dot Wordsworth
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