Plain Words (20 page)

Another danger in the use of metaphors is that of falling into incongruity: for as long as they remain ‘live', they must not be given in a context that would be absurd if the words used metaphorically were being used literally. By a ‘live metaphor' I mean one that evokes in the reader a mental picture of the imagery of its origin. A dead one does not. If we write ‘the situation is in hand' and ‘he has taken the bit between his teeth', we are going to horsemanship for our metaphors; but to most readers ‘in hand' will be a dead metaphor, unconnected to managing a horse, so that using it would have an impact no different from ‘the situation is under control'. It is possible the second metaphor still has a little life in it, calling up for a few people, however faintly and momentarily, a horse that has taken the ‘bit' under its own control. But ‘taking the bit between the teeth' is probably close to dead also.

Almost all writers fall occasionally into the trap of using a live metaphor infelicitously. It is worth taking great pains to avoid
doing so, because the reader who notices it will deride you. The statesman who said that sections of the population were being ‘squeezed flat by inflation' was not then in his happiest vein, nor was the writer who claimed for American sociology the distinction of having always ‘immersed itself in concrete situations', nor the enthusiastic scientist who announced the discovery of a ‘virgin field pregnant with possibilities'.
*

Among clichés and overworked metaphors represented by single words, the following deserve comment. We cannot but admit that there is no hope of checking the astonishing antics of
target
, and of bringing that flighty word within reasonable bounds. But we do not want any more metaphors getting out of hand like that.

Affect

Affect
has won undeserved popularity because it is colourless—a word of broad meaning that saves the writer the trouble of thought. It is useful in its place, but not when used from laziness. It may be easier to say ‘The progress of the building has been
affected
by the weather', but it is better to use a more precise word—
hindered
, perhaps, or
delayed
or
stopped
. I used to think during the war when I heard that gas mains had been affected by a raid that it would have been more sensible to say that they had been broken.

Alternative

The use of
alternative
for such words as
other
,
new
,
revised
or
fresh
is rife. It is generally regarded as pedantry to say that, because of
its derivation,
alternative
must not be used where there are more than two choices. But it is certainly wrong to use it where there is no choice at all. For instance, the Ministry of Health announced one spring that owing to the severe winter the house-building programme for the year had been abandoned, and added that no ‘alternative programme' would be issued. They might have said
other
,
new
,
fresh
or
revised
, but
alternative
must be wrong. There is nothing for it to be an alternative to: the old programme is torn up. Even in that popular phrase
alternative accommodation
, the adjective is generally incorrect, for the person to whom the accommodation is offered usually has no alternative to taking it. Innumerable examples could be given of this misuse. Here are two:

The Ministry of Transport are arranging alternative transport for the passengers of the
Empire Windrush
[which is at the bottom of the Mediterranean].

Billeting Authorities are requested to report any such cases as they are unable to rebillet, in order that alternative arrangements may be made.

Alternative
must imply a choice between two or more things.

Appreciate

The ordinary meaning of
appreciate
, as a transitive verb, is to form an estimate of the worth of anything, or to set a value on it. It is therefore not surprising that it is useful to polite officials corresponding with members of the public who want more than they can get, as most of us do today. Refusals are softened by a phrase such as ‘I appreciate how hard it is on you not to have it'. But there can be no doubt that
appreciate
is being used by writers of official letters and circulars with a freedom that passes reason. It is often used merely by way of
courteous padding, or where it would be more suitable to say
understand
,
realise
,
recognise
,
be grateful
,
be obliged
. ‘It would be appreciated if' can usually be translated into ‘I shall be glad (or grateful, or obliged, or even pleased) if …'. ‘You will appreciate' can often be better expressed by ‘you will realise' or even ‘of course'. An effective way of curbing
appreciate
might be to resolve never to use it with a
that
clause (‘I appreciate that there has been a delay'), but always to give it a noun to govern (‘I appreciate your difficulty').

Appropriate

This is an irreproachable word. But so too are
right
,
suitable
,
fitting
and
proper
, and I do not see why
appropriate
should have it all its own way. In particular, the Whitehall cliché
in appropriate cases
might be confined more closely than it is now to cases in which it is appropriate.

Note
. A new cliché is
appropriate
's opposite,
inappropriate
. So imprecise has
inappropriate
become as a term of condemnation that it is often applied in circumstances where no ‘appropriate' contrast exists (the ‘inappropriate' disclosure of a jury's deliberations, or an ‘inappropriate' sexual liaison between a teacher and a schoolchild). ~

Blueprint

This word has caught on as a picturesque substitute for
scheme
or
plan
and the shine is wearing off.

Note
.
Blueprint
started out as a Victorian photographic term for a white image printed on a blue background. Blueprints were usually used to reproduce plans. Other examples of vocabulary springing from the Industrial Revolution and quickly taken into metaphorical use are
deadbeat
,
backlash
,
safety valve
,
gas bag
,
dynamo
and
powerhouse
. The word
cliché
is itself an example: it was adopted from French into English in the 1830s, and was
originally a printing term for a stereotype block. If the shine was wearing off
blueprint
in the 1950s, it is surely now a ‘dead' metaphor, with no confusing blueness implied. But it is perhaps still worth remembering that, as Gowers noted, ‘in the engineering industries, where it comes from, the blueprint marks the final stage of a paper design'. ~

Bottleneck

Bottleneck
is useful as a metaphor to denote the point of constriction of something that ought to be flowing freely. Its use as a metaphor is not new, but it has had a sharp rise in popularity, perhaps because our economy has been so full of bottlenecks. It needs to be handled with care in order to avoid absurdity. Examples recently held up to ridicule in
The Times
include the ‘overriding bottleneck', the ‘drastic bottleneck', the ‘worldwide bottleneck' and the ‘vicious circle of interdependent bottlenecks'. A correspondent from America has written to me of an official praised for his ability to ‘lick bottlenecks'.

Note
. Though we are now also detained by metaphorical
pinchpoints
,
chokes
and phases of
gridlock
(even where there are no grids), ‘bottlenecks' have not gone away. ‘We should not', wrote Gowers, ‘refer to the biggest bottleneck when what we mean is the most troublesome one, for that will obviously be the narrowest.' This thought cannot have struck the correspondent for
The Economist
who wrote recently that ‘Most Nigerians are unlikely to receive more than a few hours of mains electricity per day for many years—the single biggest bottleneck in the economy'. ~

Ceiling

This is one of the bright young metaphors that are now so fashionable, and are displacing the old fogeys.
Ceiling
's victims are
maximum
and
limit
. There is no great harm in that, so long as those who use the word remember to treat it as a metaphor.

Note
. Gowers objected to ceilings being ‘increased' rather than
raised
, let alone to them being ‘waived', and added that ‘our normal relationship to a ceiling is to be under it, not within it'. He particularly despaired of metaphorical
ceilings
being mixed up with metaphorical
floors
(‘The effect of this announcement is that the total figure for 1950–51 of £410 million can be regarded as a floor as well as a ceiling'), or indeed with actual floors (‘In determining the floor-space, a ceiling of 15,000 square feet should normally be the limit').

Those who use
ceiling
comparably freely today would no doubt argue that, with
blueprint
and
bottleneck
, it has become a dead metaphor. (The more particular
glass ceiling
is, by contrast, still live, continually being smashed and shattered, or not smashed and shattered but bumped against and longingly peered through.) But a metaphorical
ceiling
can still be abused in ways that risk suggesting ‘undesirable ideas to the flippant'. Another recent contributor to
The Economist
, writing about euro bonds, reported on the unconvincing suggestion that a ‘flexible ceiling would act as an automatic stabiliser …', and on the belief that ‘the respective share of wayward countries would be reduced as their ceilings were reduced …' (presumably ‘lowered'), the counter view being that ‘if the ceiling was in any way perceived as being soft … the disciplining effect … disappears'. It is a fearful thought that anybody should seek to maintain discipline by emphasising the hardness of a ceiling. ~

Decimate

To
decimate
is to reduce
by
one-tenth, not
to
one-tenth. It meant originally to punish mutinous troops by executing one man in ten, chosen by lot. Hence by extension it means to destroy a large proportion. The suggestion it now conveys is usually of a loss much greater than a tenth, but because of the flavour of exactness that still hangs about it, it should not be used with an adverb or adver
bial phrase. We may say ‘The attacking troops were decimated', meaning that they suffered heavy losses, but we must not say ‘The attacking troops were badly decimated', and still less ‘decimated to the extent of 50 per cent or more'. The following truly remarkable instance of the misuse of
decimate
, taken from a penny dreadful, was given in the course of correspondence in
The Times
: ‘Dick, hotly pursued by the scalp-hunter, turned in his saddle, fired and literally decimated his opponent'.

Note
. Gowers's account here is of the Roman origin of
decimate
. When the word was first imported into medieval English, it was used to mean taking a tax of one-tenth, and a ‘decimator' was a tax collector. But its use in the imprecise sense of inflicting huge damage has been common in English for at least two centuries. Those who continue to believe that this meaning is incorrect because it defies the word's etymology commit themselves, by the same argument, to insisting that a
journey
can last only one day, and a period of
quarantine
, forty. Nevertheless, enough people do know the strict meaning of
decimate
that to manhandle the word as Gowers describes above is still to risk seeming under-informed. ~

Involve

The meaning of this popular word has been diluted to a point of extreme insipidity. Originally it meant
wrap up in something
,
enfold
. Then it acquired the figurative meaning
entangle a person in difficulties or embarrassment
, and especially
implicate in a crime or a charge
. Then it began to lose colour, and to be used as though it meant nothing more than
include
,
contain
or
imply
. It has thus developed a vagueness that makes it the delight of those who dislike the effort of searching for the right word, and is therefore much used, generally where some more specific word would be better and sometimes where it is merely superfluous. (In its superfluous uses, it is matched by
entail
.)

Here are a few examples:

The additional rent involved will be £1. (Omit
involved
.)

We have been informed that the procedure involved would necessitate lengthy negotiation. (Omit
involved
.)

Much labour has been involved in advertising. (… expended in advertising.)

This would possibly involve the creation of a precedent that might embarrass the Government. (This would possibly create a precedent that …)

The Company would oppose this application unless compensation involving a substantial sum were paid. (… unless a substantial sum were paid in compensation.)

Such are some of the sadly flabby uses to which this word of character is put. Reserve it for more knotty purposes and especially for use where there is a suggestion of entanglement or complication, as we would use
involved
when we say ‘this is a most involved subject'.

Issue

This word has a very wide range of proper meanings as a noun, and should not be made to do any more work—the work, for instance, of
subject
,
topic
,
consideration
and
dispute
.