topics: |  language | english | essays

Erudite and well-written essays on words and language, with a touch of
humour, bringing in an amazing range of subjects ultimately focusing on the
etymology, usage and cultural ramifications of words.  Each essay has a
word or phrase as title.  Based on columns that appeared in the Times, of
which PH was literary editor 1978-1990.  He is also the compiler of the
Times book of quotations, numerous books on language, and a book on the
British Library; is the president of the Classical Association.
Recent columns on the Times are on Lost Words

Near east goes west p. 110-113

Whatever happened to the Near East? ... [it has disappeared within a generation]
for a large and important part of the world to vanish off the face of the
earth in a generation seems more like downright carelessness than continental
drift.

The ancient Greeks called Delphi the omphalos or navel of the world...
The British in the 19th c. started to use the phrase.. earliest use found in
the OED: 1869.  [But "Far East" is much older. Middle East - 1876]
   [OED: OMPHALOS
    ancient Greek om{phi}al{goacu}s navel, centre, hub, round stone in the
    temple of Apollo at Delphi supposed to mark the centre of the earth, knob
    or boss (ultimately cognate with NAVEL n.). ][Note the stick in the Bithoor temple by the ganga, which is the brahmAvart,
or the axis on which the universe rotates]

   [OED: NEAR EAST
    The region comprising the countries of the eastern Mediterranean,
    formerly also sometimes including those of the Balkan peninsula,
    south-west Asia, or north Africa. Cf. FAR EAST n., MIDDLE EAST n.  The
    region defined by Near East is imprecise, allowing for some overlap with
    Middle East.

	1856 Fraser's Mag. Nov. 574 The Far East - in contradistinction to
	the Near East - for the integrity of which we went to war with Russia
	- contains a population of six hundred millions of people, or perhaps
	more. ]

   [FAR EAST
    The extreme eastern regions of the Old World, esp. China and Japan.

	[1616 T. ROE Let. 17 Jan. (1899) I. 113 Load-stones heere are
	none. They are in the farre East Countries.] 1852 J. H. NEWMAN Second
	Spring 29 The great St. Francis opened the way to the far East. 1894
	G. N. CURZON Problems of Far East i. 7 No introduction is needed in
	presenting the Far East to an English audience.  ]

   [MIDDLE EAST:
     An extensive area of south-west Asia and northern Africa, now esp. the
     area extending from Egypt to Iran. Also (esp. in early use): the Indian
     subcontinent and adjacent countries; an area perceived as lying between
     the Near East and the Far East.

	1876 Zion's Herald 11 May 146/1 Those nations of the middle East
	[i.e. Mesopotamia], formerly so little known to us, have come to be
	best known of any in those primitive ages. 1897 Catholic World
	Feb. 700 The temptation to follow the wanderings of the genius of
	building back to its immemorial source in the middle East and the
	mystic Egypt has been resisted.  ]

The Near East disappeared off the map during the Second World War, The
generals found that the distinction between Near and Middle, never clear even
in times of peace, was causing imprecision and confusion in their
terminology.

In English today, the Middle East has come to mean that vast and important
tract of the world that extends from Morocco to Pakistan.  This is
incongruous, since much of Morocco is west, not east, of the United
Kingdom. 112

Contents

alibi, angel, arabic, billion, byzantine, cheshire, cat, concordat, cowboy, crocodile
tears, dystopia, economics, jumbo, legalese
lemmings, lit, crit
love, low-key, mermaid, millennium,
near east goes west, olympics, over the moon and other high-jumps 120,
pidgin, pipeline, refute, reversibles, South African English, styles of address,
tautology, watergate, whereby 167

blurb:
   Why do footballers, when they win, claim to be 'over the moon' and when they
lose, 'sick as a parrot?'
   Is a track record different from a plain record, and what precisely is
implied by being on a 'hiding to nothing?'
   Why do crocodiles weep?
   When did mermaids get tails?
   How many angels can dance on the point of a pin?

Philip Howard, Literary Editor of The Times, as entertaining as he is
informative as he is instructive in this diverting examination of the state
of the English language in the Eighties..