Even wordsmiths can be left dumbfounded

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back our resident expert on language, Dr Wordsmith, who has popped in on his way from his favourite local pub, The Printer's Widow, on his way back there, because he has just remembered it is his round, and was a bit short of the ready. While he is here, I asked him to answer some of your queries about the way the English language is evolving:

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back our resident expert on language, Dr Wordsmith, who has popped in on his way from his favourite local pub, The Printer's Widow, on his way back there, because he has just remembered it is his round, and was a bit short of the ready. While he is here, I asked him to answer some of your queries about the way the English language is evolving:

Dear Dr Wordsmith, On the news yesterday that the IRA has agreed to let its arms dumps be inspected, Bill Clinton greeted this as "an historic event". What do you think of people who say "an historic"? I have always felt there was something rather meretricious about putting "an" in front of words beginning with "h". The people who like to say "an historic event" and "an hotel" do not say "an hospital" or "an hysterical outburst". In the case of "an hotel" they try to justify themselves on the grounds that "hotel" is a French word and the French don't sound the letter "h". But "historic" isn't a French word! So why do they say "an historic event"?

Dr Wordsmith writes: You may well be right. Next !

Dear Dr Wordsmith, I haven't finished yet. If you're looking for people who don't sound their initial "h", you don't have to go to France. You only have to go to the East End. Cockneys never pronounce the first "h". They say quite freely, "an 'ideous sight" or "An 'igh-rise block". They say "an 'otel" and they would, if they were President of the United States, say "an 'istoric event".

Dr Wordsmith writes: You may well be right. Could we have a question about something else, please?

Dear Dr Wordsmith, It is commonplace to say that we all, or at least the older among us, remember where we were when we heard of John F. Kennedy's death, or John Lennon's death or the fall of the Berlin Wall. But is there a word for this? I mean, a word meaning "appertaining to an event which people remember where they were when it happened"? There should be so that we could get round all this hoo-ha about Kennedy every time we wanted to express the concept.

Dr Wordsmith writes: You may well be right. And the next!

Dear Dr Wordsmith, Your last correspondent commits a very common grammatical error when he asks if there is a word for an "event which people remember where they were when it happened". Now, although this is grammatically mangled, we know what is meant. This often happens these days.

Another example is when people say "I have no time for these sort of people". Grammatically, you can either say "this sort of person" or "these sorts of people", but "these" cannot go with "sort". And yet we let people get away with it because it is comprehensible. Shouldn't there be an expression meaning "an ungrammatical construction which is so common that it has almost become correct through usage"?

Dr Wordsmith writes: It's a very good point indeed. You could well be right. And the next!

Dear Dr Wordsmith, When I was a lad, the abbreviation "DNA" meant "does not apply" and you put it down on a form as an answer to a question which didn't apply to you. Nowadays "DNA" means something quite different, namely the stuff which has replaced fingerprints in crime stories. "PC" meaning "politically correct" has also edged out all other meanings of "PC" like "postcard", "Police Constable", etc. Is there a word meaning "an abbreviation which has replaced an identical abbreviation with a different meaning"?

Dr Wordsmith writes: Not to my knowledge, alas.

Dear Dr Wordsmith, May I ask a question? What is the use of writing to you if you never know the answers?

Dr Wordsmith writes: I am not here to give answers to your tiresome and jejune queries. I am here to allow readers to show off their knowledge, but above all to earn enough of the ready to get back to The Printer's Widow and do my duty to my fellow drinkers. This I have now done. Ciao and amen!

Dr Wordsmith will be back soon. Keep those queries rolling in!