groan

[chelidon]

It's when you see a sentence like this that you know you're dealing with a writer who studied classics (Latin, in this case).


from a CNN article about a new robot for the International Space Station -- Hed: Endeavour crew set to lift off, assemble robot):

In reality, there's nothing sinister about Dextre.

Big groan.

Comments

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Aacgkh. *headdesk*

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

I kinda figured that'd be your reaction ;> It occurred to me that it could be totally accidental, but it's also possible the writer intended that to be the punchline for the whole article. Either way, yes...ow.

[127fascination.livejournal.com]

That reminds me. What was the pun in the old Underdog cartoons of having a villian called Simon Bar Sinister? Sinister I get, but the Bar I never did.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Bar Sinister (or more properly, "baton sinister" or, even more properly, "bendlet sinister couped overall,") is an old heraldry term, used as a mark of bastardry, with "sinister" indicating the direction of the mark across the heraldic device, from upper right to lower left. Basically, if your heraldic device had the bar sinister, it indicated you were of noble blood, but illegitimate, or that there was bastardry in your family line. Thus, Mssr. Sinister of the Underdog fame was being called a bastard in a way likely to get past network censors.

The actual term "bar sinister" was, if I remember right, coined (or made popular by, anyway) Sir Walter Scott.

See all the useless knowledge that fills your head from a young adulthood frivolously spent on classics, and historical recreation ;>

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't groan... though it is out of place. CNN reportage suggests that the distinction between right and left -- let alone sinister and dexter -- is too high an audience expectation.

[snakey.livejournal.com]

Please, not another bar puns thread.... *hides from it*

[127fascination.livejournal.com]

I remember that herald stuff now. Thanks for the refresher :)

[maitrix.livejournal.com]

S/he didn't necessarily have to had studied classics or Latin to understand that. More than a passing familiarity with rhetoric, composition, the English Lanuage and books, in general, is sufficient. Dextral and sinistral are synonyms for right-handed and left-handed, respectively, as you well know.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

ah, well, thank you for the excuse to exercise a few normally quite useless brain cells ;>

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Dextral and sinistral are synonyms for right-handed and left-handed, respectively, as you well know.

Sure, taken directly from the Latin. But very (and sadly) rare to see a writer in any mass-market venue make reference (in this case, a bilingual play on words) to something which indicates even passing familiarity with...well, anything, really. In short, we seem to have become, by and large, a culture of the painfully obvious -- broad, flat and shallow.

Ah well, no doubt the Greeks said the exactly same thing about their culture in their time ;>

[maitrix.livejournal.com]

There are many other words in the English language derived from Latin that are commonplace.

[lylythe-strega.livejournal.com]

Yeah - what she said. One need not be the product of a classical education to have an appreciation for word origins etc...

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

I think you may both be reading something into what I wrote that I'm not saying.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

Certainly true. Almost every word in the English language came from something else, and many from Latin. I'm not sure I take your point here.

[(Anonymous)]

What I'm saying is that since Latin words populate the English language which even those with a non-classical education speak, the author need not have had a classical education to utilize dexter and sinister thusly.

In other words, what Lyl said.

[chelidon.livejournal.com]

True, it is possible.

If, by "Classical," I mean exposure to the classics, and some experience with Latin (which I do), I suggest that the relative rarity of such things in current educational praxis makes it far less likely that more than a very small percentage of the readers of that piece got the joke. Which is not to place or ascribe any level of moral virtue or innate superiority upon anyone who did get the meaning, whether that individual had any exposure or interest in classics or not. The knowledge in itself is probably without any great deal of overt value. I simply note that I find it likely that the writer had an exposure to such things, which is presently uncommon.

"Sinister" and "dexter" are by no means common usage (in their bilingual meaning), nor automatic knowledge -- for instance, one may know very well what "sinister" (English) means, and know what "dextrous" means, while totally missing the bilingual play on words that was used. I suspect that most readers missed the joke, and the fact that the author chose to write it (assuming it was not somehow random chance) may well say something about his or her education.

And perhaps, now, I have that horse to death quite well flogged (doggedly avoiding the word-play of "mortuus" and "equus")