Mind your language
MY HUSBAND and I were laughing about the Bishop of Edinburgh over breakfast the other day. It was not at the usual thing (genes and adultery), but the announcement that one of his forthcoming lectures would be on 'sin- gle-sex issues'.
This, I think, meant homosexual mat- ters. And perhaps the good bishop was right not to use this word, for many poorly educated people think that the first element refers to men (from Latin homo, 'a man'), rather than to 'the same' (from the Greek homos). We have been through all this before. Even so, I cannot believe that single-sex is a satisfactory replacement for homosexu- al. After all, not all single people are homosexual, or vice versa.
Anyway, one reason we were talking about the question in the first place was that I had vowed to my husband that I would not mention Samuel Pepys again till the end of June. You see, like most people it sometimes seems, I am read- ing the wonderfully edited complete transcripts of his diaries, which are now available in paperback, and I can become a bit of a bore about my enthu- siasm for them.
But that won't stop me. One of the things I delight in, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, is the change in meaning of many of the words that Pepys uses. Some more that I have come across include: able, which means `wealthy'; comedian, meaning `actor'; undertaker for 'parliamentary manager'. Son can mean `son-in-law', and son-in- law can mean 'stepson'. Obnoxious has done a somersault since Pepys's time, when it meant 'liable to'. Green (as in `green geese') is 'uncured' meat, which might be eaten at a club, which can be an informal gathering where the guests share the cost of the meal, as at a colly- feast.
My favourite changed meaning is effeminate, which referred to a type of man that Pepys knew well: one particu- larly susceptible (obnoxious?) to women. And, since Veronica is off on an exchange trip to Brittany, pony- trekking, or something, I think I can record Pepys's term for a talkative brag- gart: windfucker. That might bear revival.
Dot Wordsworth
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