When I first heard the expression “vim and vigor”, I asked, “What is vim?” I had never heard that word used anywhere, and it sounded like a nonsense word to me. Vigor, on the other hand, was a word I knew. I could point to examples of vigor.
Vigor came to English from Latin and implies a certain energy, enthusiasm, or force. It came to mean healthy, as well, which makes sense. You have to be healthy to exhibit a lot of energy or enthusiasm. There is a sense of strength, as well, but primarily of the mind with physical power just sort of trailing in the wake of the effect of mental influence.
Vim may have also come from a Latin root meaning strength (also energy) or it may simply be a made up word which first appeared in English in the 1800s. In any case, vim’s definition is almost exactly that of vigor, so why pair them? Are they meant to be hyperbolic, an overstatement for emphasis? Yes, that it is exactly the reason for linking them with their subtle differences filling out the impact for the overall impression desired.
There are some confused people, however, who have complicated the life of “vim”. They pair it with vinegar, as in “he is full of vim and vinegar.” This is just a mistake, a malapropism, most likely cause by a confusion of “piss and vinegar” or “pep and vinegar”. Vinegar seems to have become synonymous with vitality in the college slang of the 1920s. This may have contributed to the odd pairing as vitality and vigor would seem to be equals.
By the way, if you are full of “piss and vinegar” you have likely had too much alcohol of a quality more like vinegar than a valued vintage. In other words, you are drunk and behaving outrageously. The other half of the expression does not need to be explained beyond a nod to the usual reaction to the intake of large quantities of liquid.
When I decided to write about vim and vigor, I thought this expression was a holdover from much earlier times. There are, I am told, other pairings in English (unlike these), that come from a time when the occupants of the British Isles did not all speak the same language. Back then, there were language enclaves where a whole settlement of Danish speakers, for instance lived within trading distance from a village of Saxon speakers and both might be encompassed in the jurisdiction of the Latin speaking church.
There were class separations, like the Norman French spoken by the ruling class (outside Scotland) versus the Saxon spoken by their servants. This made it not uncommon for the servants or vassals to take a word from their liege lord’s French, for example, and pair it with one similar in the local Saxon, German/Dutch, Celtic, Norse or Danish of the working classes, or even potentially to mix in Latin terms learned from the clergy.
This was an effort toward successful communication which I applaud. If I find any of these are still in use, I will share them in a later blog.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishandEtymology #EnglishIdioms
MORE FUN WITH HOMONYMS
Homonyms is the overall term that covers words that sound and/or look the same but which have different meanings. There are so many of these in English that I cannot possibly tackle them all at once. In an earlier blog I wrote about bear/bear/bare and resent/resent/recent. Today’s blog will review close/close and clothes.
Very versatile is “close”. Close (pronounced with soft S and its hiss or hard S like a Z) can be a verb, adjective or noun. Close (S sound) as an adjective means near. Close, the verb (Z sound) means to shut, to end (as bring to a speech to a close).
As a noun, it can be the end of a speech. The English call a group of houses for which there is no through access a “close”, as in closed off. This use of the word uses the Z sound. “I live in a close,” as a statement is very confusing to American speakers. According to George Bernard Shaw (or possibly Oscar Wilde), “The English and Americans are two peoples divided by a common language.” This idea my be featured in a later blog.
So far, so good. It seems simple, but wait. What about “clothes”? The word sounds exactly like “close” the verb or British noun, yet it comes from the word “cloth” Someone could argue, if they were ridiculous enough to do so, that people en-close (surround) themselves in clothing, so there is some connection. Not true but a non-native speaker might be tempted to think so.
“Close” came into English from Latin and “clothes” is a plural form of cloth which is German or Dutch. Do note that the O in cloth is not the long O of clothes. It’s the influence of that silent E which is there for no other purpose. The history of the silent E is touched on in a later blog
There you have it: close (verb), close (noun), close (adjective) and clothes (noun), just three more stumbling blocks along the way to learning English. This brings this blog to a close (noun), but definitely not to the clothes.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishHomonyms
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“DISCOVERY, THE GREAT ADVENTURE, THE WONDER SPELL” was published in 1984 in Reaching High, California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Prize Winners. This poem appears in honor of Women’s History Month. Helen Keller came to the author’s high school and spoke in Margaret’s classroom, for by that time Helen had learned to use her voice. The author never would forget that visit, later reading what Helen had written as well.
KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby
“MORE FUN WITH HOMONYMS”. This is just one of several blogs the author will write concerning homonyms.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“EN LA PLAZA DE MAYO” was written after seeing a documentary a circumstance that happened in Argentina. In the period between 1976 and 1983 thousands of people were killed or disappeared, including babies. In 1977 the mothers of the vanished young people began to walk in the main plaza of Buenos Aires (Plaza de Mayo) as a way to call attention to this terrible fact and to get the government to release the names of those removed and their fates. Their march became international news. Eventually names were released, though many say the list is incomplete. Families continue to search for answers. The poet wrote the poem in elementary Spanish present tense because it was the only verb tense she felt she could be certain would be written correctly. She was taking a refresher course in conversational Spanish for a trip to South America at the time. It is included this month in honor of Women’s History. This poem first appeared in the chapbook, “Tangent Allusion” published in 2001.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR MARCH 2021
THERE IS A PAIN WHICH IS NOT MY PAIN, AND YET IS
I am wounded in a hundred ways
And my blood seeps, drying,
I lie stilled, ended
On the field
Where the battle cries
Have not yet finished
With the air.
#CompassionandPoetry #EmpathyandPoetry #DepressionandPoetry
SELMA
The blood
The slashing of flesh and bone
The snarls
The crashing of men to stone
The waste
The splashing of hope Atone!
I awoke in dread
For men had bled!
And a voice from a box
In a dream had said
Dog spelled backwards is God!
And I remembered then
There were dogs and men
And a curious play called Zone
And a place marked BLACK
And a space washed WHITE
And music: a shuddering moan.
And I trembled awake
For the souls who make
The teeth-blue bruise of hate
And for those who wait
Behind iron-white gate
And call the waiting Fate.
#Selma #SelmaandPoetry #CivilRightsViolenceandPoetry #RacialConflict
ANOTHER ODD COUPLING
When I first heard the expression “vim and vigor”, I asked, “What is vim?” I had never heard that word used anywhere, and it sounded like a nonsense word to me. Vigor, on the other hand, was a word I knew. I could point to examples of vigor.
Vigor came to English from Latin and implies a certain energy, enthusiasm, or force. It came to mean healthy, as well, which makes sense. You have to be healthy to exhibit a lot of energy or enthusiasm. There is a sense of strength, as well, but primarily of the mind with physical power just sort of trailing in the wake of the effect of mental influence.
Vim may have also come from a Latin root meaning strength (also energy) or it may simply be a made up word which first appeared in English in the 1800s. In any case, vim’s definition is almost exactly that of vigor, so why pair them? Are they meant to be hyperbolic, an overstatement for emphasis? Yes, that it is exactly the reason for linking them with their subtle differences filling out the impact for the overall impression desired.
There are some confused people, however, who have complicated the life of “vim”. They pair it with vinegar, as in “he is full of vim and vinegar.” This is just a mistake, a malapropism, most likely cause by a confusion of “piss and vinegar” or “pep and vinegar”. Vinegar seems to have become synonymous with vitality in the college slang of the 1920s. This may have contributed to the odd pairing as vitality and vigor would seem to be equals.
By the way, if you are full of “piss and vinegar” you have likely had too much alcohol of a quality more like vinegar than a valued vintage. In other words, you are drunk and behaving outrageously. The other half of the expression does not need to be explained beyond a nod to the usual reaction to the intake of large quantities of liquid.
When I decided to write about vim and vigor, I thought this expression was a holdover from much earlier times. There are, I am told, other pairings in English (unlike these), that come from a time when the occupants of the British Isles did not all speak the same language. Back then, there were language enclaves where a whole settlement of Danish speakers, for instance lived within trading distance from a village of Saxon speakers and both might be encompassed in the jurisdiction of the Latin speaking church.
There were class separations, like the Norman French spoken by the ruling class (outside Scotland) versus the Saxon spoken by their servants. This made it not uncommon for the servants or vassals to take a word from their liege lord’s French, for example, and pair it with one similar in the local Saxon, German/Dutch, Celtic, Norse or Danish of the working classes, or even potentially to mix in Latin terms learned from the clergy.
This was an effort toward successful communication which I applaud. If I find any of these are still in use, I will share them in a later blog.
#EnglishLanguage #EnglishandEtymology #EnglishIdioms
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“SELMA”. The author wrote this poem in 1965 in reaction to what she had seen and heard during the Civil Rights March in the city of Selma, Alabama. In one of the television reports, the words “dog spelled backward is god” was said. This phrase found itself into her dream and this poem. This selection is included for this National Black History Month.
KALEIDOSCOPE—a series by Kathleen Roxby
“ANOTHER ODD COUPLING” continues the theme of paired words begun last week.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“THERE IS A PAIN WHICH IS NOT MY PAIN, AND YET IS”. This is one of the poet’s depression poems written sometime in the late 1960s through most of the 1970s. It seemed an appropriate poem to follow “SELMA” which appears this week.
FEBRUARY SPECIAL – MURDER MYSTERY IDEA
As there were no submissions this month, I present another story idea as a challenge for you—a mystery.
TIME: present day
PLACE: New York City brownstone or any similar structure in a large town
CIRCUMSTANCE: New resident in the middle of repairs following rain damage, discovers a skeleton in a wall.
CHARACTERS
The owner who discovers the bones, young and aspiring architect into restoring old homes, perhaps too focused in his fascination with old structures.
The detective(s). Is there a brilliant, or merely lucky amateur? Is the official representative from police or other investigative entity a uniquely interesting person?
The dead woman. Was she sealed in alive, dead from poisoning, knife or bludgeon? In my dream, she was pretty, alternately willful and silly, but ultimately an innocent.
The person(s) responsible for concealing the body. No hint here—might be self-preservation and done solely, or a family affair to hush up events they wish to leave unknown.
Note: in my dream, the girl had been dead for so long that it is unlikely any are still alive who were part of her life. But police could via DNA to trace the bones to the young woman. There was also a hint of a quirky detective, a chance for a bit of humor in an otherwise gruesome story.
Best of luck to you. Do let me know if you turn this into a story to suit yourself. Thank you.
SPLINTERS FOR FEBRUARY 2021