The missing 'erstwhile'

This blog's intent is to look at the use or misuse of words and expressions in journalism but here is an exception. It is about non-use of a word - erstwhile. And the confusion it causes.

The Hindu's news item on April 1, 2013 failed to use 'erstwhile' when talking about the former ruler of Bastar giving the impression that in a democratic republic which India is, royalty with titles exist. The only place where its use was not required - and not used - is in the fourth paragraph because the report recalls the past when India did have kings.

It is another matter that people in several regions, including cities like Jaipur, do look at the former rulers as royalty and refer to them as His/Her Highness but for a newspaper to treat them as royalty is ill-advised.

The use of 'Bastars' to identify the people who belong to a region is interesting.

All comments are welcome.

When use of 'out' when 'in' would have done.

In a news item on March 4, 2013, The Hindu said this: "They got two children born out of their wedlock". That was not the newspaper had meant to convey.

The report was about a couple who quarreled and then resumed their marital life after which they had two children. That is very much within the wedlock.

It is possible that the writer literally translated what is said for the same thing in any Indian language - it happened from out of it, or because of it. The out here is not the same as saying, for instance, out of frustration, he screamed.

That error could mean a lot to the couple. The man in has been identified by name, about how a criminal case against him following his wife's complaint - fortunately not named - led to a criminal case. That led to denial of a job for which he otherwise qualified.

We do not know if the person complained to the newspaper or threatened it with a suit because children out of wedlock reflected adversely to their reputation. The Reader' Editor corrected it in his Corrections and clarifications column on March 7.

There is another issue with the construction of that unintended mischievous sentence in the report. Why "got two children born out of their wedlock? Why not merely the two children (if it were really so, and I am pushing it here only  for argument's sake) born out of wedlock?

'Mercurial' and alternatives

Adjectives are a strict no-no when writing news, news as in only facts. An adjective preceding a fact turns the fact into an opionon, a subjective belief. But The Economist has been a magazine - it calls itself a newspaper - which is liberal with the adjective.

'Mercurial' is an adjective the magazine has been using of late when describing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, not once but several times. An alert London reader counting it was used ten times for one subject, Sarkozy which raised his eyebrows and let his fingers fly while punching the computer keyboard. Mercurial was "overused" he wrote in his letter published in the newspaper's November 19 edition.

Ross Hobart offered 15 alternatives to the ten-times used word: capricious, chnageable, erratic, expansive, fickle, irrepressible lubricious, spirited, unpredictable, unstable,variable, and volatile. But think of it, nothing fits Sarkozy better that 'mercurial' does.

For instance, there are only two ways of describing the French President's height: short. Diminutive wouldn't quite say what 'short' does and given his stature, diminutive wouldn't quite be mot juste. So use of a Thesarus is not always the best way out. If Sarkozy is short and merciruail that is what he is. Anbd those are the best words that says it all.