I learned a new word today. Actually an old word, but I don't recall ever seeing it before. I happened to discover that I could download a free copy of The Scarlet Pimpernel on Kindle, and as I was passing the time at the Laundromat, I did just that. (Funny, Google just capitalized Laundromat, and that was something I didn't know to do either. Further research may be required.) Anyway, waiting for the clothes to dry, and already done with the book I'd brought, I decided to try out the opening pages. And it starts out pretty well. All the aristocrats, or "aristos" in Baroness Orczy's terms, are trying to flee the city limits of Paris and make it to England in order to escape the guillotine, and the guards at the gate are having a cat and mouse sort of game with them.
"Men in women's clothes, women in male attire, children disguised in beggars' rags: there were some of all sorts: ci-devant counts, marquises, even dukes, who wanted to fly from France, reach England or some other equally accursed country, and there try to rouse foreign feelings against the glorious Revolution, or to raise an army in order to liberate the wretched prisoners in the Temple, who had once called themselves sovereigns of France."
Sometimes when you encounter a strange word on Kindle, the little look-up function is not so good--try reading a Northern Irish crime novel sometime--but ci-devant seems to be well within its capacity. In French:
ci: here; devant: before, in other words heretofore. And in other, other words the ci-devant aristos are those who were previously aristos, but no longer.
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| The Baroness herself. |
It's funny, perhaps, that the word has fallen out of use when so much French came over the Channel and stuck. But maybe it's because there is a plethora of such words in English. Plethora in its sense of overabundance, of too muchness. Because we not only have "heretofore", but I also thought of "erstwhile", and just now, the word "hitherto". Apparently, ci--devant is really only best when you are trying to capture the turmoil of the French Revolution.
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Do you have comment modification turned on? I have tried and failed twice now to post a comment here.
ReplyDeleteThird try:
ReplyDeleteI had not heard ci-devant before. It's nice to learn another words for quondam.
In re Laundromat, This article that appeared in the Economist in 1997 explains why it's wrong to capitalize a word that has become part of the language just because that word happens to be a trademark.
At my newspaper, several people, including those who make decisions on such matters, insist that dumpster be capitalized, even though it is very clearly a generic word for "large trash bin," at least in this part of the country. They then compound their mistake by capitalizing the word regardless of whether they know the bin in question is of the Dumpster brand or not. Their lack of understanding is complete.
No, not turned on, but you can probably see that now. I don't know if there is a problem. Commenting has been a bit light, but it is, after all, summer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that article. Very clear. I remember coming across this issue with Dumpster in a word document once, with Microsoft capitalizing it, but now I will fearlessly write up my martini drinking and kleenex use(yes, they just auto-capitalized that too) without fear of reprisal.
I should have some sympathy for the colleagues in question. It's easier to follow a rule than to think about what it means. Nothing could be clearer than that article, which I have shown to the people in question. I keep hoping that if I change "Dumpster" to "large trash bin," people here will realize how stupid our rule is. The hope is futile, of course, but I won't stop making the change.
DeleteIt does seem like the natural flow of events should be to pass from the capitalized brand name to a more generic meaning. After all, it just means that your brand has succeeded beyond all possible expectations.
DeleteThat is the natural flow, though reasonable people can disagree over when a brand name has attained sufficient currency to be lowercased. But even if it's possible to imagine someone doubting that dumpster has attained that currency, the rest of how people at my paper handle the world is surreal, Through the Looking Glass Stuff.
DeleteHmm, Blogger just killed another comment that noted my inadvertent use of "world" for "word" above, as interesting as the mistake was.
DeleteActually, I saw it in my email, and didn't realize it was a typo.
DeleteWell, despite my occasional criticism of wretched prose and silly style rules, I cannot in all honesty say my newspaper and my colleagues view the world in a surreal manner.
ReplyDeleteRight, but you know them and I do not. I sometimes see the world in a surreal manner, so for me it is no big thing.
DeleteAlas, I am way behind in finding this post, but now I'm filled with questions. First, is washateria capitalized? It seems not. And second, Styrofoam? The oceans are full of the stuff not biodegrading, but we still have to capitalize it. Makes a recycling ranter crabby. And the Pimpernel? Why do we seek him? It seems a bit Seussian. I would not seek him here or there. I would not seek him anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThere is no such thing as behind on this blog, Nancy--your comments are always welcome. As to capitalization, I think I will defer to the Economist and Peter above, as Peter is an actual copyeditor.
ReplyDeleteI would seek the scarlet pimpernel flower, though, if I knew it was about.
I just found a comment on the Merriam-Webster site in which Nelson Mandela was said to have once been referred to as the black pimpernel, as prior to capture he was always hiding out and on the run.
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