AVERSION
Sut,—As usual, I turned eagerly to " A Spectator's Notebook " as soon as your last issue reached me, for " Janus " long since claimed me as one. of his most fervent disciples, but this week he has caused me pain. " Under-belly " may have, as he says, its explainers and admirers, but surely no one reading his comment on that debatable word can find a syllable of extenuation for his closing sentence on that topic. How could he bring himself to write " On the other hand, not even my aversion to . . ."? More. careless scribes, and men less zealous than he in the defence of our mother-tongue, may be pardoned or ignored ; but, with justice, we expect better things from him, and look for immediate reparation and apology. Not even " Janus " can be averted " to " a thing, but only " from " it.—Yours, &c., 13 Sudbrooke Road, Balham, S.W. 12. WILFRID L. HANNAM.
[" Janus" writes: Anticipating the possibility of such a comment as this, I took the precaution of consulting the Oxford Dictionary before I wrote. The entry runs: " Aversion, i.e., dislike, antipathy (to, from, for)." To, it will be observed, comes first.]
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