In praise of … neologisms
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/in-praise-of-neologisms-editorial Version 0 of 1. So far as we know the word "dather" has never appeared in the Guardian before. But on Tuesday, on the BBC, the chief executive officer of Gatwick airport, Stewart Wingate, promoting its claims against those of Heathrow for expansion, said plans for the latter always fell victim to political "dither and dather". When long ago David Owen accused opponents of "fudging and mudging", a great thumbing of dictionaries followed. "Fudge" was familiar enough, but what was "mudge"? How did one set about mudging? The English language has a taste for such couplings. Many of them, like fudge and mudge, rhyme: hocus-pocus and willy-nilly even achieve amalgamation. Yet "dither and dather" joins an equally valid class that already accommodates dilly and dally and shilly and shally. How to define it? Well, clearly what he is saying is that Heathrow keeps falling victim to chronic political dithering and hither-and-thithering. |