Vol. 1 No. 24
January 29, 2007
From Gulliver's Travels:
I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remembered to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awaked, it was just day-light. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes.
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PLAIN ENGLISH
Today’s lesson: Who or Whom?
Whom is often treated like a pretentious relic of our language, and thus is seldom used correctly. Most people assume it’s the same as who.
Here’s why they’re different:
- Who is either the subject or predicate pronoun of its own clause (clause = subject + verb).
Ex. Who is at the door? (who is the subject of the verb is)
- Whom is always an object.
Ex. With whom are you speaking? (you is the subject of the verb are speaking, and whom is the object)
If you think these rules are bosh, use this handy trick:
| 1. |
isolate the who/whom clause |
| 2. |
substitute “he” or “him” for the “who” or “whom” and see which sounds better. If it’s him, use whom. If it’s he, use who. |
Ex. For whom the bell tolls.
The bell tolls for he.
The bell tolls for him.
Him sounds best, so use whom.
Ex. We’ll give the job to the person who earns it.
He earns it.
Him earns it.
He sounds best, so use who.
Source: Get It Write Online. |
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ETYMOLOGY 101The origin of: gargantuan
Gargantua was originally a benevolent giant of medieval French folklore, famous for his voracious appetite—his name is derived from the Spanish garganta, “throat.” He was familiar to Shakespeare, who referenced him in his play As You Like It (c. 1600):
Celia: You must borrow me Gargantua’s mouth first: ’tis a word too great for any mouth of this age’s size (III.ii.80). |
French satirist François Rabelais popularized Gargantua in the early 16th century when he released Gargantua and Pantagruel, a series of five novels that attacked clerical education and monastic orders. His works endorsed secular learning and the free will of the human spirit, but were also crude. The magnificent scale of everything in Rabelais’ works (Gargantua rode a giant mare, whose tail switched so violently that it felled the entire forest of Orléans) gave rise to the adjective gargantuan, in use since Shakespeare’s time.
Jonathan Swift (of Gulliver’s Travels fame) gave us two more words to describe things on a hyperbolic scale. The first, brobdingnagian, comes from the mythical land of Brobdingnag, where a bewildered Gulliver encounters beings twelve times the size of normal people. The second word, lilliputian, comes from Gulliver’s adventures on the isle of Lilliput. The Lilliputians are a mere six inches tall, petty, self-interested, arrogant, and constantly at war over trivial matters. In the story, they are warring with the neighboring island of Blefuscu over the proper way to eat a boiled egg. This was a parody of the trivial conflicts between Britain and France, specifically regarding the theories of consubstantiation and transubstantiation. While the former holds that the body and blood of Christ are present “alongside” the bread and wine, the latter holds that the substance of the bread and wine are transformed. The narrow-mindedness of the Lilliputians gives lilliputian a second sense: petty.
Gulliver being tied down by the Lilliputians
shortly after his shipwrecked arrival
Sources: The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories, Wikipedia.
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