The Word Snoop

by Ursula Dubosarsky

  Can you guess why the Word Snoop has put some of the words in the little story above in bold? Well, it’s because each of those expressions is something called a cliché (pronounced cleeshay ). Clichés are phrases that you have heard and read so many times, they don’t really carry much meaning or excitement anymore.

  The word clichégoes back to France in the eighteenth century, when printing was done by making metal plates with the letters placed on them. A particular kind of fixed metal plate, called a stereotype, was invented as a quick, cheap way to print something over and over again, instead of making up a new plate each time. Cliché (meaning “clicked”) was a word for the sound the plate made in the press, and was often used for the name of the plate itself.

  But although it was a cheaper and quicker method of printing, the print quality of these clichés and stereotypes was not as good as setting up new printing blocks each time. So the words came to be used for characters or expressions in writing that are weak copies, rather than being fresh and original.

  Clichés are everywhere—in newspapers, books, television, radio, and songs. Why do we use so many? Well, I suppose the whole reason a cliché comes about is because the first time the expression is used, it seems to describe something really well—that’s why it gets repeated so often and becomes a cliché. When people are in the grip of their deepest emotions, they often use clichés to sum up how they’re feeling: “I’m totally shattered” or “This is too good to be true.”

  If you look at the Bible or plays by William Shakespeare, they seem to be full of clichés, with phrases like “by the skin of your teeth” or “there’s method in his madness.” But these weren’t clichés to begin with. They were expressions that people liked, and so kept on saying. The problem is, once you say something too many times, it can lose the meaning it had in the first place.

  There are writers, though, who use clichés on purpose. The nineteenth-century French novelist Gustave Flaubert made characters think or speak in clichés because he wanted to show the reader that’s how some people actually think and speak. Other writers play around with clichés and create something called an anti-cliché. The Big Bad Wolf is a bit of a cliché—okay, so why not write a story about the Big Good Wolf? That’s an anti-cliché. But then if everyone does it, the Big Good Wolf becomes a cliché too. Then what do you do? (An anti-anti-cliché?)

  It’s very difficult to avoid clichés completely. The problem with clichés is that they’re so familiar that you don’t even notice you’re using them. You can get computer programs now that will look for clichés in your writing and highlight them. What you see might shock you to the bone!Oops . . . um . . . I mean, shock your socks off . . . I mean, shock you out of your mind.Oh dear. How about may cause disturbance to some viewers . . . ? Gee, this is harder than it looks!

  Take a look at the little story on page 180 and see if you can rewrite it without the clichés. Which version is more enjoyable to read? And to write?

  Tautology

  Watch out for the frozen ice!

  You may not know it, but this sentence is something called a tautology. It comes from two Greek words—tautos, which means “same,” and logos,which means “word.”

  A tautology is when you repeat something in a sentence when you don’t have to, because the information is already there.

  In that first sentence, ice is always frozen (otherwise it wouldn’t be ice), so there is no need to describe it as frozen. You can just say: “Watch out for the ice!” In the same way, if you say that someone is a famous celebrity, it’s a tautology because a celebrity has to be famous, otherwise they’re not a celebrity. (Well, that’s the idea, anyway . . .)

  Tautologies are far more often said out loud than written down. Your brain takes a bit more time when it’s writing, and usually you realize the problem and fix it up. But when you’re talking, words come out very rapidly, before you can think too much. People who have to speak a lot in public, like sports commentators and politicians, come up with the most tautologies. Like the ones on the next page.

  “If we don’t succeed, then we will fail.” (Aha!)

  “He’s on the final lap, which is the last one.”

  (Good to know.)

  “The plan was to rob the banks illegally.”

  (The things people do . . .)

  “The person who wrote this book must be some

  kind of author.” (Some kind of what?)

  The Australian playwright Alexander Buzo collected these sorts of funny tautologies and published whole books of them. Tautologies like this are sometimes known as “Yogiisms,” after the baseball player and sports commentator Yogi Berra. He’s the one credited with the phrase “It ain’t over till it’s over.” (Yeah, but, like, when is it over?)

  There are some expressions or names we use that are actually tautologies but we don’t realize it. This happens particularly if other languages are involved. The name of the country East Timor, for example, means “East East” because timur in Indonesian means “east.” In the supermarket you might see Chai Tea for sale—in Hindi chai already means “tea.” (Would you like a nice cup of tea tea?) The same thing can happen with acronyms, when words are shortened to their initials and we forget what the initials stood for in the first place. ATM machine is a tautology, because ATM stands for “Automatic Teller Machine.” (Automatic Teller Machine machine?) And why is PIN number a tautology?

  As far back as the sixteenth century, grammar books have said that tautologies are a kind of mistake. But actually, they’re not always mistakes—sometimes writers may be using them deliberately on purpose (ha!), to make you pay more attention, or make you laugh or think. William Shakespeare, who many people think was the greatest writer the world has ever known, wrote this famous tautology in his play Julius Caesar—“this was the most unkindest cut of all.”

  You’ll see plenty of deliberate tautologies in advertising, where they want to make sure you really get the message. Here are just a few the Word Snoop has spotted on her travels:Free gift

  Open every day, including Sunday

  Bargain Basement Downstairs

  (Gosh, thanks for telling me, I might have headed upstairs . . .)

  On the next page is a telephone conversation between two friends that contains quite a few tautologies. I wonder if you can spot them . . .

  “Have you heard? The Word Snoop has

  written her own autobiography.”

  “Is that really true? What an unexpected

  surprise!”

  “Oh well, I suppose she’s just following her

  natural instinct.”

  “Can you repeat that again? I didn’t hear

  the inaudible part.”

  “Sorry, must go. Look at the time! It’s

  already five p.m. in the afternoon.”

  “Okay, bye. See you when I see you!”

  How is it going, Word Snoops? Ready to tackle another code? (Hint: It will help to know what an acronym is.)

  Lazy Insects Carefully

  Eat Nutty Sausages

  Every Day

  Answers

  DOUBLESPEAK

  1. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

  2. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

  Dear Snoops,

  Names are special things. Most people are

  pretty attached to their names. And some

  people have more than one name, for quite a

  few different reasons . . .

  Sometimes, a person’s name even turns

  into another word altogether, and becomes

  famous—more famous than the

  person ever was!

  What am I talking about?

  Turn the page to find out . . .

  Yours in name (and in deed),

  The Word Snoop

  9.

  Is that a real person?

  Nicknames

  A nickname is a special name that your friends and family call you. It shows that they know
you well, and usually that they like you too. When the Word Snoop was at school, her nickname was Urk. (Erk!)

  The word nickname comes from the Middle English word eke, meaning “to increase,” added to the word name(so to “add to a name”). Over time, the words “an eke name” said over and over again turned into “a nickname.”

  Nicknames are actually how a lot of surnames began, as a way of telling one person from another. So a redheaded person in Italy might have been nicknamed Rosso,which means “red” in Italian, and this turned into the surname “Rossi.” Or a person in England who was always tired might have been nicknamed Go to Bed, which turned into the surname Gotobed. (Come on, Mr. Gotobed, just go to bed!) Back before the Middle Ages, your own surname might have started as a nickname like this.

  Nowadays nicknames are often a shortening of part of a person’s first name or surname, like Dan for Daniel, or Liz for Elizabeth, or Joe for Joseph, or Fito for Adolfito (which is already a nickname for Adolfo). Sometimes the name changes a little, like James becomes Jim, and William Bill, or Katherine Katie.

  Different languages have their own ways of making nicknames—in Taiwan, for example, children’s nicknames are often made by repeating the first syllable of their name, so Bozhi turns into Bobo. In Spanish-speaking countries, often a person with green eyes will be nicknamed Gato,which means “cat.” Do you know some other ways of making up nicknames?

  Nicknames can also be kinds of jokes. In English, there’s a tradition of giving someone a name that means the opposite of what they look like, so a bald man might be called Curly, or a tall person Tiny. This goes back a long way, and is almost a kind of euphemism. Remember Little John,one of Robin Hood’s merry men in Sherwood Forest, who was actually really big?

  Other joke nicknames might come from what a person does for a living, like a butcher might be called Chops,or an electrician Sparky. And can you work out why Mr. White is called Chalky,or Mrs. Fowler Chick?

  Nicknames are everywhere—for politicians, for sports teams, even for buildings and countries. I’m sure you can think of many of these. (The Word Snoop is always happy to say she lives in the land of Oz!) You will have also used nicknames on the Internet, which are usually known as handles or user names.

  Finally, there are the nicknames that tend to stick even if nobody remembers how they started or where they came from. The brilliant Brazilian football player Edson Arantes Do Nascimento, known all over the world by his nickname Pelé, does not know himself where the nickname began! This often happens in families when children are small. These can be the best sorts of nicknames—where they really belong to the person and make them feel loved. I wonder if you have some nicknames like that in your own family?

  Eponyms

  Know any good eponyms? No? Let’s put it another way. Ever heard of sideburns,salmonella, or sandwiches? Ever been mesmerizedor mentored? Do you know if hooligans have good hygiene?

  What is the Word Snoop talking about?

  All of these words are eponyms. An eponym is a word that comes from a person’s name. Epi in Greek means “upon,” and onoma means “name.”

  So all those words in italics came from names of either real or invented people, who said or did something memorable that meant something was named after them. Can you imagine the sort of hair the U.S. general Ambrose Everett Burnside had on his face? Or the disease Daniel Salmon was interested in? Or the Earl of Sandwich ’s favorite food?

  These are just a few eponyms, and you would know many more. Often it’s just a matter of looking them up in a dictionary or on the Internet and finding the etymology of the word (which would tell you where the word originally came from). There are hundreds, probably thousands of eponyms in English, for all sorts of reasons. I wonder if you could find out where the names Ferris wheel came from, or bloomers, or Granny Smith apples (yum!), just to name a few.

  It would be a strange thing, wouldn’t it, to wake up in the morning and discover that something had been named after you? Hmm, in your case, I wonder what that would be? Or what you would like it to be?

  As for me, I’d like to go to a restaurant and order myself a triple-chocolate-caramel-fudge-super-special Word Snoop . . .

  FRANZ MESMER

  Spoonerisms

  Party time! Would you like a belly jean? No? What about a chag of bips? What on earth am I talking about? I’m playing a kind of word game called spoonerisms. Over 100 years ago at Oxford University in England, there was a man called the Reverend William Archibald Spooner. He was a gentle, white-haired history teacher, but that’s not what he was famous for—it was the way he spoke that made everyone remember him.

  Reverend Spooner had a funny habit of switching around the first letters of words near each other, which made them sound like different words altogether. So instead of saying “toe nails,” for example, he might have said “no tails,” instead of “blow your nose,” he said “know your blose.” These are what we now call spoonerisms, after Reverend Spooner. (Aha! That’s another eponym.)

  Imagine if you had been one of Reverend Spooner’s students, and he met you in the corridor. Can you work out what he’s saying on the opposite page?

  Student: Good morning, Reverend

  Spooner. How are you today?

  Reverend Spooner: Wite quell, thank

  you. Dot are you wooing?

  Student: Er, I’ve been playing football.

  Reverend Spooner: Football! But you

  have hissed my mystery lecture!

  Student: Oops.

  Reverend Spooner: This is go nood.

  You’ve already tasted two worms playing

  football. Go and shake a tower and come

  straight to my office.

  Student: Ses yer! I mean, yes sir.

  Some people, like Reverend Spooner, can’t help talking in spoonerisms, but that’s very rare. Most of the time, writers and comedians make them up, for the fun of playing with words. I wonder if you can work out the spoonerisms on the next page? Better still, make up some really funny ones of your own!

  Spoonerisms

  1. It’s roaring pain outside.

  2. That’s a lack of pies!

  3. Would you like a soul of ballad?

  4. I don’t have time to chew my doors.

  5. Do you live on this hock of blouses?

  6. Eye ball!

  Tom Swifties

  You’ve heard of a cookie factory or an ice-cream factory, but imagine a writing factory! Rows and rows of writers hunched over desks writing story after story, trying to think up new plots and characters every day.

  About 70 years ago in the United States, the E. L. Stratemeyer writing factory produced a popular series of children’s adventure books about a boy genius inventor named Tom Swift. They had titles like Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera,and Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet.These hardworking writers were teased for all the different words they used whenever Tom Swift said anything—Tom Swift didn’t just say things, he declared,he murmured,he whispered,he giggled, he stammered, he snorted,he sneered . . . you get the idea!

  Later, a kind of special joke developed out of this tendency of Tom’s, called a Tom Swifty. It’s a kind of pun, which is when you use a word that has two meanings at once to make people laugh. In a Tom Swifty, when Tom Swift says something, the writer uses a word that relates to what he is talking about to make a joke.

  Like this:“I just love cats,” Tom Swift purred.

  (Cats purr, get it?)

  “I checked, and there really are 432,911

  lollipops in the jar,” Tom Swift recounted.

  (Tom counted the lollpops again, and then

  he told you about it!)

  Then there’s another type of Tom Swifty where it’s the adverb (which is the word that tells you how he says something) that makes the joke. Take a look at the ones on the following page.

  “Who turned out the lights?” Tom Swift

  said darkly.

  “Can you le
nd me your pencil sharpener?”

  asked Tom Swift bluntly.

  “Would you like to pet my cocker spaniel?”

  Tom Swift suggested doggedly.

  “I’m no good at darts,” Tom Swift

  said aimlessly.

  Try to make some up yourself. Once you start, it can be hard to stop (said the Word Snoop open-endedly . . .).

  Malapropisms

  “My favorite dessert is chocolate mouse

  with decimated coconut.”

  Now, there’s something not quite right here. The person speaking has got some words and expressions a bit mixed up. This is called a malapropism. A malapropism is when you confuse words that may seem or sound similar, but have different meanings. So here the person probably meant that chocolate mousse was their favorite dessert, and they liked to eat it with desiccated coconut.

  Like spoonerism and Tom Swifty,the word malapropism is an eponym named after a person, in this case Mrs. Malaprop. She wasn’t a real person, but a character in a play called The Rivals, written by Irish playwright Richard Sheridan in 1775. He gave her the name Mrs. Malaprop from a French phrase mal à propos,which means “not quite right.” If you ever get to see The Rivals,you will find yourself laughing and laughing. (The Word Snoop had to leave the theater and get herself a large glass of water, she was laughing so much.) It’s not because of anything Mrs. Malaprop does, but the things she says. For example, she compares someone to an allegoryon the Nile instead of an alligator,and even describes someone as “the very pineappleof politeness.” (Um, I think that should be pinnacle,Mrs. M!)