George Orwell, Big Brother and reality TV
AT THE end of last year, Alastair Beaven asked if readers had examples of people using words in a novel sense without knowing their original meaning – and he wondered if this phenomenon has a name (25 December). He gave the example of an interpreter in Afghanistan who knew about viruses in computers, but not about biological viruses.
Mike Meakin responds by telling us that in the hospital where he works, several young colleagues only know of “Big Brother” through the reality TV show. They have no knowledge of George Orwell or 1984.
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Anetta Pirinen, on the other hand, says she knew something significant had happened in her mind the day the word “Homer” stopped being a Greek poet and took on the meaning of a cartoon character.
John LaFreniere asks how it is possible to “dial” a number on a cellphone.
Abby Stancliffe-Vaughan says that her infant daughter once announced with joy that she would be able to call the rest of the family from her bedroom. No one understood what she meant until they realised she was responding to an earlier conversation about putting a “mobile” – meaning a hanging decoration, as opposed to a cellphone – in her room.
What about a name for this phenomenon? It doesn’t seem to have one, though there is a name, “retronym”, for the original meaning of a word. “Biological viruses” in the first paragraph of this story is a retronym.
Readers sent us several suggestions. We particularly liked “vironym”, proposed in honour of Alastair’s tale by “Chainsaw” on the US National Puzzlers League mailing list, after Feedback reader Dick Plotz had appealed for suggestions there.
Then there was Andrew Ross, who suggests “uragnosia” – pronounced, he says, “you-rag-nose ear”. This derives from the prefix “ur” (denoting origin) and the noun “agnosia” (more familiar in its adjectival “agnostic” form), so it means ignorance as to origin.
We also liked the suggestion of a friend with a penchant for neologisms. He notes that the new uses of these words have “split off” from the original meaning and taken on an identity of their own. He proposes “meionym”, in honour of the division of a cell into distinct gametes, or “meiosis”.
“Bart Holland sends us a tag that came with a purse he bought at the stationery store Paperchase. It says: “WARNING. Choking hazard – not suitable for children under 36 years”
FROM The Biomedical Scientist comes, via James Jefferies, the welcome news that Elf McGnome was admitted in October 2010 as a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science. “He’s actually for real,” Jefferies assures us.
Were we to be called that, we would probably have sued our parents by now. But, looking around the internet, for example at , we find that a change of name by deed poll was involved and the former Greg Smythe voluntarily took on this charming moniker.
WHEN Adrian Smith updated his McAfee anti-virus subscription, a notice flashed up. Topped by a warning in red saying “Application Wants to Access the Internet”, it said: “The program McAfee Trusted Advisor Framework Exe is requesting access to the internet… McAfee does not recognise this application.”
Having alerted Adrian against itself, McAfee went on to offer him the choice of accepting or blocking access to McAfee.
WHEN Christopher Bridgman’s wife ordered some Christmas items online, she must have failed to specify one of the fields in the address – the package was addressed to “Undefined Margaret Bridgman”.
“I always knew there was something special about her,” says Christopher.
VAGUELY worried, Karen Ashworth notes that the Philips “Car Control” hairdryer she just purchased claims it will leave her hair “moisture rich”. “Surely,” she ponders, “that’s the opposite of what I’m normally trying to achieve when I use a hairdryer?”
Checking the claim, we find the online shop at which states that this dryer offers “ionic conditioning”. We are now much more worried.
Papaya and passion-fruit down on the farm
THE rural west of England is thought of as featuring quintessentially English countryside, so much so that the long-running BBC radio soap opera about country life, The Archers, is set there. This being so, we share Matthew Daggitt’s surprise at discovering that a yogurt from UK supermarket Sainsbury’s describes itself as “Mango, Papaya and Passion-fruit West Country Yoghurt”.
Global warming must be a lot more advanced down there than previously thought.
Blub. Blub. Blub-blub. Blub…
FINALLY, under the subject line “What your spellchecker won’t spot”, Ian Stewart sends us this quote from BBC Good Food magazine: “Finally, another selling point is that much British shellfish is sustainably farmed, or responsibly harvested from healthy stocks. Check the Marine Conversation Society’s list of safe fish to eat at .”
Ian imagines what a marine conversation might sound like: “Blub. Blub. Blub-blub. Blub…”