GENERAL MISINFORMATION

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1930, Page 3

GENERAL MISINFORMATION

When we examine our current speech we find it full of fallacies and mistakes carried on from our uncritical ancestors. It is: an interesting study'in the psychology • of -the t crowd, . .to observe some of the oft-repeated ‘‘bulls” which we are. all- guilty of some time oi: other We must all plead guilty to the. constant utterance of misnomers as when we talk of iron milestones, steel pens (pen—a (feather), metal shoe-horns, or catgut which is made from the intestines of sheep. • : We are believed to go on saying things from innate conservatism and a, belief that the familiar way round is 'usually the shortest way home. But the suggestion is unconvincing. Why do we continue to speak of such things as. Burgundy pitch which is not pitch nor does it derive from Burgundy, but 'is a mixture of rosin and palm oil ? Or of Brazilian grass which does not grow in Brazil and is not a grass at all, hut consists of strips of .palm leaf and comes from Cuba? A more important misnomer occurs in the name America, which is named from Amerigo Vespucci the (Italian naval astronomer. He certainly did not, discover America although it was .'mistakenly named after him. That the natiyfes were called (American) Indians is the result of a blunder on the part pf the early explorers who set out to find India and stumbled by mistake on America.. They found there a oarfeshinned people and promptly christened them “Indians.” All sightseers to London visit what is known as Cleopatra’s Column on the Embankment. Oddly enough, the column was not erected either by, or for, that Queen by the King Thothmes TIT. Pompey’s Pillar is in similar case for it has no relation to Pompey. It was erected by the Emperor Diocletion and inscribed in his name. .

We frequently read and speak of the •‘Four Elements” fire, air, earth, and water. They are, of course, not elements at all. “German silver” contains no silver and it was made in China very many years ago. Mosaic gold is not -gold and had nothing to do with Moses. It is a mixture of -copper and zinc and is, used for shoddy jewellery. The Guinea-pig is not a pig and it does not come from the Island of Guiriea but from Guiana in South America. Honeydew is neither holiey nor dew but a substance given off by insects when ‘milked’ by ants. These are juxt a few instances out of hundreds which will occur to mind immediately we subject our popular colloquialisms to the crucible of though.