BAR MITZVAH BLISS

by Steven Steinbock

I’m writing this a whole week early, having just finished writing my April 16 column, since this column gets posted on the day before my son Sam’s Bar Mitzvah. He’ll do great. He is a man of many words. A chip off the old block.

Back Formations

Two weeks back, in the comments section of my April 9 column, the subject of pronunciation pet peeves came up. It got me thinking about the phrase pet peeves. It’s a funny expression if you think about it. The two words are oxymoronic. A “pet” is something you like, a favorite, a cherished animal. A “peeve” is an annoyance.

What is also interesting is that both “pet” and “peeve” are examples of back-formations. Back-formation is the linguistics term for what happens when a new word is created by removing apparent suffixes or prefixes. Note, I said apparent. In order for the process to be back-formation, the parts of the original word that are stripped away are not meant to be stripped away.

The word televise is an example of back-formation. Someone took the word television (for which vision is an essential root) and decided that by taking away the ion he would have a verb.

One might think that liaison comes from the verb to liaise or that an editor is one who edits. But the real story is backwards. The verb liaise was invented by slicing off the tail of liaison, and the word editor predated edit by almost two hundred years. To opine, legislate, or escalate are to engage in back-formed verbs.

It’s been suggested that the word pet is a back-formation from pettish or petty. I can’t say I wholly understand the connection. It’s a complicated example because pet may have two different origins (one Scottish and one southern English) and at least one of them implies something annoying rather than something cute and cuddly. In that case, maybe pet peeve isn’t such an oxymoron.

Peeve is a much simpler, straightforward example of back-formation. In Middle English, the word peyvsh (1350-1400) was a state of being irritated or obstinate. It evolved into peevish. Then in America during the early years of the Twentieth century, the ish got cut off like mouse’s tail with a carving knife, and we got “peeved.”

Euthanized Oaths

The title should have been “Euphemized Oaths” but I couldn’t resist the pun. The two words, euthanize and euphemize are just two letters off from each other, and one is an example of the other. It’s also worth noting that euthanize is a back-formation from euthanasia. If I get much more philosophical than I am right now, they’ll have to send the men in the white coats for me. Or worse.

The word oath is extremely old. It means to testify, affirm, or vow. But it also has the meaning of “careless invocations of divinity” going back as far as 1175. That’s the kind of oath I’m referring to. Ever since my April 9 column about the word “snap” I’ve been thinking about innocent-sounding words that people use as substitutes for obscenities. What has shocked me to the core is how many of these casual slang words are religious in origin.

By golly, it’s a long list. Dang, Darn, and Drat are all substitutes for “Damn.”

Golly, Gosh, and by Gum are alternatives to referring to the Deity in vain. Then, of course, there’s the expression dadgummit which is a spoonerism, of sorts, as well as being a euphemism.

Hades is a Greek synonym for “Hell” (as well as the name of the Greek deity who rules that domain) so it doesn’t really qualify as a euphemism. But that doesn’t stop people from using it as one. Then there are invented words like Heck and Sam Hill.

The Christian messiah gets the grand prize. What follows is a partial list of substitute curse-words based on the name and/or title of the famous Nazarene:

Jeez
Sheesh
Jeepers
Jeepers Creepers
Gee wiz
Jiminy Cricket
Merry Christmas
Cripes
Crikey
Cheese and Rice

Let’s not have Criminal Brief become a den of blasphemy, but if you have any favorite euphemized curses, or any interesting back-formations, click the comment button and let it roll.