Bovine Scatology & Kakistocracy

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Writing about

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/ram/today4_obscurewords_20070727.ram

And about

Foyle’s Philavery - A Treasury of Unusual Words

Hooray for Christopher Foyle - a good Essex man from near Maldon - and, of course, something to do with a few big bookshops.

I was reminded of this just now (I confess I had forgotten it from this morning!) because I’m in the process of editing something written by an academic colleague.

The thing that reminded me was the question posed by Evan Davis: should we make a point of using obscure words to prolong their existance or should we concentrate on making ourselves understood using say the 800 most commonly-used words?

We certainly claim to have have a good many more words in English than in other languages - but see the Oxford Dictionaries on this….

Kakistocracy

A system of government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.

Bovine Scatology

For those of you who love a good euphemism, Bovine Scatology is a term
coined by General Norman Schwarzkopf, first heard by the viewing public
at a press briefing on status of the air and ground campaigns during the
Persain Gulf War. The general referred to speculations by various
military pundits, employed by CNN and other news gathering/reporting
organizations, as “bovine scatology”.

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