Word of the day: waitperson

This evening my girlfriend and I had a meal out at a restaurant in Crystal Palace. The food was excellent but the menu suggested we ask "our waitperson" about the soup and terrine of the day.

'Waitperson' - is this a common word? I'd been under the impression that 'waiter', like 'actor', was increasingly being used gender-neutrally. Or can I expect to come across 'actperson' soon?

The Oxford English Dictionary does list 'waitperson' (as an American English term) - the first quotation is as follows:

1980 N.Y. Times 3 Aug. (Long Island Weekly section) 13/1 The young waiters and waitresses (referred to as ‘waitpersons’ on the menu),..wear a preppy uniform.

The Nordics - and Scandinavia

A recent email from our CEO talked about "plans to sell our businesses in the Nordics". The Nordics?

I'd thought that 'the Nordic countries' and 'Scandinavia' were synonyms (if I'd thought about it at all), but it appears that the former term almost always includes Finland and Iceland, while the latter term often doesn't.

As Wikipedia says (referencing the brilliantly named Kenneth R Olwig):

"Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question, as well as interpretation by outsiders who attempt to give the term their own meaning. The term is, therefore, often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own usage

The OED Online defines 'Nordic' (adjective) as "of or relating to Scandinavia, the Scandinavian people, or their languages", which doesn't really clarify the matter. I'm sure my Concise OED gives different definition, but I'll have to check when I'm back at work.

• Is it Scandinavian or Nordic? The Difference Between Scandinavian vs Nordic

Names: Joy Rider

A couple of years ago, Apus wrote about one of our colleagues who had uncovered some interesting names while working on her family history: notably, Arthur and Walter Bottle.

That same colleague has continued her research and she recently stumbled across another great name: Joy Rider.

Interestingly, the Joy Rider in question was born in Kent in 1939, while the first recorded usage of the word 'joyriders' (or in this instance, 'joy-riders') dates from back in 1908 - according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The definition it gives is: "A pleasure trip in a motor car, aeroplane, etc., often without the permission of the owner of the vehicle."

The word originated in the US and I'm not sure whether it was widely known in the UK by 1939. I would suspect not, judging by this evidence.

Greetings to any Joy Riders reading this post!

To demagogue

A while back my colleague Sue emailed me to say:

Pres Obama referred to "demagoging" in his interview on the Today programme this morning - I haven't looked it up but surely there's no verb 'to demagogue'?

Well, I've just looked it up and not only is such a verb in fairly widespread use, but according to the OED Online, it dates back to at least 1656 (in the sense of "to play the demagogue"). It has been used as a transitive verb, meaning "to deal with (a matter) after the fashion of a demagogue", since at least 1890.

The OED does say "chiefly US", but then Obama is the US president so I'll let him off.

Photo from Flickr

Regarding 'demagoging', Google suggests that 'demagoguing' is the more widely used spelling (32,000 results as opposed to just over 4,000).

And rather bizarrely, searching Google for "to demagogue" with results limited to "pages from the UK" brings up something called JD's World as the first result. Nothing to do with me, I promise...

I say majority, you say plurality

A sentence in recent raw copy perfectly illustrates the difficulty of using the word 'majority':

There were 203 recorded crimes; the majority (28) occurred in the Metropolitan constabulary.

To many people, a majority must consist of more than half the total – which in this case, would be at least 102 crimes. I believe that in American English this is called a 'simple majority'. I've also heard it referred to as an 'absolute majority' (though I'm not sure whether there's a difference between 'simple' and 'absolute' majorities).

However in British English at least, as this writer demonstrates, 'majority' often means only "the greater number or part" (OED Online). More crimes occurred in the Metropolitan constabulary than in any other; therefore this is where the 'majority' of crimes occurred. I must admit, this usage strikes me as a little odd, and I'm English.

As regards elections, it's worth contrasting 'majority' with 'plurality'. The OED Online describes this as "orig. and chiefly US, the fact of having the largest share of the votes cast, when this is less than an absolute majority".

'Subway' and 'underpass' in British English

Something else Christmassy, this time spotted in Forest Hill, London:



This interested me because of the use of 'subway' to refer to what I would call an 'underpass' (namely a tunnel that enables pedestrians to cross under a road).

Googling reveals that the two terms are often used interchangeably in British English. For example, I found an article in the Barking & Dagenham Post which begins:

A 71-year-old man was beaten to the ground by a group of thugs as he walked past a notorious subway.

The pensioner was attacked near the underpass linking the Mark's Gate Estate to East Road, Chadwell Heath.

The OED Online indicates that 'underpass' originated in the US – where, of course, 'subway' is used to mean "underground railway" (again, OED Online).

I wonder whether 'underpass' is ousting 'subway' here in Britain.

So a couple of questions, mainly for our British readership: would you use 'subway', 'underpass' or both? If both, is there any difference in how you would use them?

No jokes about sandwich shops, please.

(Oh, and I appreciate that 'subway' is a shorter word than 'underpass', and therefore easier to fit on a sign.)