Amos Kwok

Worth his salt?

The Latin word for salt is sal. Salt was an important commodity in the Roman empire. It was used to flavour food and more importantly to preserve food at a time when refrigeration did not exist. Roman soldiers were given regular rations of precious salt or they were given an allowance to buy salt. That allowance was called a salarium. And from salarium, we derive our English word salary.

Now, is that where we get the expression, "a worker who is worth his salt"? A quick search reveals that the phrase "worth is salt" goes only as far back as 1830. One appearance was in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island: "It was plain from every line of his body that our new hand was worth his salt."

So is the phrase "worth his salt" related to being paid in salt? I have no idea though it is enticing to link the two.

Words to try: Trope

I came across the word trope in a Guardian blog entry on Asus at this year's CES 2011.

To quote, the article, the line was:

"He's working the Steve Jobs trope, by walking back and forth and talking slowly, but it's not quite as compelling."

 

Trope in this usage is an "overused device", referring to Steve's Jobs habit of walking back and forth on stage. Trope also refers to expressions or themes that have been overused to the point of being a cliche.

Example: When I watched the movie, the director pulled in the usual thriller tropes to the point that I got bored midway through it and fell asleep.

If I were vs If I was

I often see these following errors:

• If he was
• If I was
• If she was

The correct forms should be:

• If he were
• If I were
• If she were

Why is this so? This is because these phrases are in the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is used to express a state of affairs that is contrary to the facts. It can also states a wish or desire that is not true.

For example, I could say, "I wish I were a millionaire" (I'm not); "If she were pretty" (she's not); "It this were true" (it's not); "If it were sunny we could go out" (but it's actually raining); "She spoke as if I were deaf" (but I can hear perfectly well).

In the above examples, we're imagining a state of affairs that isn't true. This is the subjunctive mood. Grammar rules dictate that the plural form "were" should be used with a singular subject. Therefore the correct form is "If I were" and not "If I was".

Bonus: remember that the personal pronoun you is always paired with were. Thus it is always "You were" and never "You was".

Extra credit section: "If I was him" contains two errors. The first of course is that since this is the subjunctive mood, it should be were and not was. Secondly, it should be he and not him. In other words, it should be "If I were he". We use he in this case because were is a form of the verb to be and when using to be the nominative case pronoun I must be matched in type and so we have to use he. (I, she, he, we, they, who are nominative case pronouns while me, her, him, them, whom are objective case pronouns.)

Sneaked vs Snuck

In my entry on "Awhile vs A While", my example sentence used the word snuck. Two readers have pointed out that no such word exists and that the proper past tense of sneak is sneaked.

Well, yes and no. Snuck is an acceptable past tense of sneaked but it has fallen into disfavour. When this happened, I'm not sure. But it's still a legitimate word found on the Merriam-Webster and the Oxford dictionary. However, its usage is in rapid decline and sneaked is now the preferred past tense form.

AskOxford.com provides an interesting note on snuck:

From the beginning, and still in standard British English, the past tense and past participle forms are 

sneaked. Just as mysteriously, in a little more than a century, a new past tense form, snuck, has crept and then rushed out of dialectal use in America, first into the areas of use that lexicographers label jocular or uneducated, and more recently, has reached the point where it is a virtual rival of sneaked in many parts of the English-speaking world. But not in Britain, where it is unmistakably taken to be a jocular or non-standard form.

I think therefore, the best bet is avoid using snuck if it causes confusion in communication.

Please revert

Here’s one of those annoying solecisms that drive me batty. You’ve probably seen it in an email:

Please revert to me. Or Please revert.

What the person means is "please respond to me" or "please get back to me". Unfortunately, revert does not carry the meaning of "please give me an answer". Revert means "to return to a previous state or condition". Or "to go back to a former period or subject". In legal terms, revert means "to return a property to its original owner". It has no connection with responding to an email or asking someone to come back to you with an answer.

In fact, by saying "please revert to me", you actually asking someone to transform back into you! Now who wants to do that. So when you're tempted to write "please revert" in an email, use "Please get back to me" instead.