What’s in a word?; Sayings and swallows
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Being brought up in the UK, no-one said much about the choice of words you used. It was all perfectly understood.
Here, however, it’s different. Even for those people who have English as their mother tongue – but a different form of English.
Fantastic is a word I use often. And it was here that people started to comment on it. Apparently, it’s the way that I say it not that I over-use it (although I’m sure I do). So, for instance, at work, people use it in a joking way and say it in the way that I do, a little over emphasised.
And the other night we were at friends for dinner. K had cooked, as usual, a really fantastic (and I mean that) feast. We had anchovies in an oil and lemon sauce that simply melted in your mouth.
I complimented her.
‘This is lovely’, I said.
She is American.
‘Does that mean that you like it or not? I can never tell when English people say “lovely” what they really mean’.
I was, somewhat, taken aback. Lovely is another word that I use a lot. In the UK you can tell whether people mean it or not by the tone of voice, the inflection, etc. In this case I was using it genuinely.
Funny, isn’t it? Ordinary words suddenly have so much more meaning and power than they used to.
When we were in Siena (was it really only last weekend?) we saw a lot of swallows doing their air-acrobatics. I love to watch swallows and swifts to. Anyway, this led Alberto and I to talking. Whereas we have the saying that 1 swallow doesn’t make a summer, for Italians it is 1 swallow doesn’t make a spring. Makes sense really.
Which reminded me that, when we had our house in the wilds of the UK, our driveway was made of very old tarmac and moss and lichen grew on it. Swallows used to land there, in the morning, before the sun got on it, to pick at either the lichen or the bugs, I could never be sure. It was quite funny to watch them as their legs are far too short and far apart to enable them to move on the ground so they, sort of, waddled, a bit like ducks!
