Fulsome

There is always a competition between the elite/knowledgeable /informed and the not-so-informed in any human endeavor, but no where else is the competition as keen and contentious as it comes to taste and language. The uninformed and the not-so-informed are not aware that one's display of taste or usage of language exhibits the level of education and sophistication of the user. They are sadly not cognizant of a fact that it's human nature to look down upon the inferiors. 

Americans, because of waves upon waves of immigrants, tend to be very sloppy in language usage. Consequently, Ignorance abounds. A very common faux pas is the prepositional phrase "in regards to". College graduates and even journalists routinely make this mistake. 

Ainsi Parlait/Thus Spoke/Así Dijo Wissai

canngon.blogspot.com

On May 12, 2017, at 9:38 PM, @yahoo.com> wrote:

FYI,

Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testifying in front of a Senate Judicary subcommittee, May 8. PHOTO: ERIC THAYER/GETTY IMAGES

May 12, 2017 9:09 a.m. ET

2 COMMENTS

It has been a fulsome week on Capitol Hill.

On Monday, former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. “I intend my answers today to be as fulsome and comprehensive as possible while respecting my legal and ethical boundaries,” ran her opening statement.

Then on Tuesday evening, after news broke that President Donald Trump had fired FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) released this statement: “It is essential that ongoing investigations are fulsome and free of political interference until their completion.”

The way that Ms. Yates and Mr. Corker used “fulsome,” to mean “very full” or “complete,” raised some eyebrows among usage sticklers, who have long decried what they see as improper applications of the word. When Ms. Yates said “fulsome,” Bryan Garner, editor of “Garner’s Modern English Usage,” responded on Twitter, “Oh dear.”

Mr. Garner recommends that “fulsome” only be used in its “traditional, disparaging sense,” meaning “excessively lavish” or “offensive to good taste.” Thus, “fulsome praise” should be understood as praise that is insincerely flattering, rather than simply abundant.

While what Mr. Garner calls the “loose usage” of “fulsome” has been on the increase in recent decades, it is in fact something of a revival of the word’s original meaning. When “fulsome” first entered the language in the 13th century, it meant “copious, plentiful,” etymologically linked to the word “full.”

But that positive meaning underwent a peculiar historical transformation. By around 1500, “fulsome” could mean “corpulent,” “obnoxious” or “tedious.” A century later, it continued its downward descent, into “sickening” or “excessively effusive.” And there things stood, until the meaning started moving back to neutral or positive senses in the 20th century, no doubt influenced by the resemblance of “fulsome” to “full.”

Linguists call a positive-to-negative semantic shift “pejoration,” and the reverse process is “melioration.” While many words have undergone such radical shifts (“nice” used to mean “stupid” or “timid,” for instance), “fulsome” is remarkable for its full pendulum swing from positive to negative and back again.

The dueling interpretations can lead to ambiguity: Is “fulsome praise” a good or bad thing? Usually context will clarify the situation. When Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described a recent telephone call between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very fulsome,” we can assume he meant the conversation was very detailed and not full of insincere flattery (though perhaps it was both).

Mr. Garner puts “fulsome” in the category of “skunked terms”: words undergoing a shift in meaning. (Other examples include “effete,” “enormity,” “nonplused” and “bemused.”) When a word has become “skunked,” Mr. Garner advises, it is often best to avoid it, since either the old or the new usage is sure to bother someone.

But given its currency among the political class, the so-old-it’s-new meaning of “fulsome” will no doubt continue to flourish in abundance.

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