Wednesday January 31, 2007
Why is NY called The Big Apple?
WHICH of these sentences are correct:
a) My uncle bought a beautiful, antique, Japanese, wooden table.
b) My uncle bought a beautiful, wooden, antique, Japanese table.
c) My uncle bought an antique, beautiful, Japanese, wooden table.
If all the sentences above are wrong, what should be the correct one?
2) What do these words mean? Are they really English words?
a) modus operandi
b) niche
c) magna cum laude
d) ad hoc
e) prima donna
f) déjà vu
g) bona fide
h) alma mater
i) vis-à-vis
j) tete-a-tete
k) rendezvous
3) Why is New York known as “The Big Apple”?
4) What are “copper kettles”?
– Kueh, Klang
1) Michael Swan in Practical English Usage gives the order in which the different kinds of adjectives should appear before a noun. His order is: 1. colour, 2. origin, 3. material, 4. purpose, with other kinds of adjectives to go before those.
The Collins Cobuild English Grammar (CCEG) uses different terms for the order, ie: 1. qualitative, 2. colour, 3. classifying.
Your first sentence has therefore the correct order, according to these two books, i.e.:
a) My uncle bought a beautiful antique Japanese wooden table.
I will summarise what kinds of adjectives (according to Swan and CCEG, respectively) are in the sentence, to justify their order:
1. beautiful – other/qualitative
2. antique – other/classifying
3. Japanese – origin/classifying
4. wooden – material/classifying
According to CCEG, the main difference between a qualitative adjective and a classifying one is that the first is gradable (e.g. we can say “very beautiful” or “less beautiful”) and the second is not (e.g. we don’t say “very antique” or “less Japanese” or “more wooden”), although some adjectives can be either qualitative or classifying according to the context.
Also, for reasons given by CCEG, you don’t need to separate the adjectives in your sentence with commas.
2) These words and expressions have been ‘adopted’ by the English language from other European languages, but they retain their original spelling, and sometimes pronunciation.
a) Modus operandi means the usual way in which a person or thing operates. It comes from Latin and literally means “way of operating”.
b) Niche comes from the French word for “a recess”, i.e. a small hollow place in a wall where one can place a statue, etc. It means the same thing in English, but there are other meanings as well, i.e. “a comfortable or suitable position in life or employment” or a “specialized corner of the market” in business. (Concise OED)
c) Magna cum laude is a Latin phrase meaning “with great praise”. It is usually written after a degree in the US (e.g. BA, magna cum laude) to mean “with great distinction”. There is a higher category of degree, however, i.e. summa cum laude which in English means “with highest distinction” from the original Latin that means “with highest praise”.
d) Ad hoc is Latin for “to this” and in English means “formed, appointed, etc, for some particular purpose”. For example, an ad hoc committee can be formed in a social club for the purpose of organising a party.
e) Prima donna is an Italian phrase meaning literally “first lady”. Its usual meaning is “the principal female singer in an opera”, but figuratively it means “a person of the highest standing in a particular field or activity” or “one who behaves in a self-important and temperamental manner”. (OED)
f) Déjà vu literally means “already seen” in French. But the term is used in English to mean “the feeling that you have previously experienced something which is happening to you now”. (OALD)
g) Bona fide is a Latin term meaning “with good faith”. In English, it is used to mean “in good faith, with sincerity; genuinely” or “acting or done in good faith; sincere, genuine”. (OED)
h) Alma mater in Latin means “bounteous mother” and in English is used to refer to one’s school or university which is regarded as one’s “fostering mother”. (OED)
i) Vis-à-vis comes from French and means “face to face”. In English, it usually means “in relation to” or “in comparison with”. (OALD)
j) Tête-à-tête in its original French literally means “head to head”. In English, it means “a private conversation between two people” or (of two persons), “in private” or “face to face”.
k) Rendezvous is from the French word for an appointment, romantic date or a regular meeting place, and means all those in English as well. Its literal meaning in French is “present yourself” (rendez vous). There are other less romantic meanings of the word in English, i.e. “a place appointed for assembling troops, ships, etc.” or “a pre-arranged meeting between spacecraft in space”.
3) No one is absolutely sure why. But a book by Irving Lewis Allen, The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech (1993) quotes a 1909 comment by someone called Martin Wayfarer:
“New York [was] merely one of the fruits of that great tree whose roots go down in the Mississippi Valley, and whose branches spread from one ocean to the other ... [But] the big apple [New York] gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.”
Wayfarer might have been the first person to use that term for New York.
However, the term was popularised in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald, the horse-racing columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph, in his column “Around the Big Apple with John J. Fitz Gerald”. In his first column on Feb 18, 1924, he wrote:
“The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York.”
Fitz Gerald didn’t claim to invent the term. He said that on a trip to New Orleans in 1920, he had heard the term used in a conversation between two stable hands:
“Where y’all goin’ from here?” queried one.
“From here we’re headed for the Big Apple,” proudly replied the other.
They were referring to the big-time racetracks of New York City.
4) They are kettles made of copper. If there are other meanings, I am not aware of them, nor could I find any in the reference works I consulted. Does any reader know of another meaning of that term?
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