A Few Diverse Curiosities in English

Mastering the English language – to the point where you can comfortably communicate with your customers – is no small task. I have harped on the importance of this subject in several of my previous newsletters. This month, I deal with a few topics which are both current and interesting. One of them came to mind as I was considering the implications of the necessity for water restrictions. The others are based on my responses to queries from readers and customers.

I start by offering an amusing anecdote which you will certainly appreciate. One of France's greatest lexicographers, Emile Littré (1801-1881), was caught by his wife, in bed with their housemaid. “Emile,” cried Mrs Littré, “I am surprised!” “No, my dear,” calmly replied the master of words. “You are astonished. It is we who were surprised.”

THE COLOR GRAY

With the dreadful drought in our region, there has been some talk about reusing home-generated graywater to water our gardens. I diverted the flow of water from our washing machine directly to a patch of grass in our yard and it works just fine, keeping the grass green and my conscience clear.

What is graywater? Graywater is non-industrial wastewater generated from domestic processes such as dish washing, laundry and bathing – all of a house's wastewater except for the water from toilets which is called blackwater, or sewage. Graywater gets its name from its cloudy appearance and from its status as being neither fresh (whitewater or potable water), nor heavily polluted (blackwater).

A related question about graywater is the real reason for this short discussion. How do you spell that color? There are two acceptable spellings of the word: gray and grey. Prior to today, I was under the assumption that "gray" was the more popular spelling, but after two quick Google searches for "gray" and "grey," I realized the difference is not that substantial. Both get more than 140 million hits.

The two words have exactly the same meaning, and “gray” is simply an American derivation of the original British spelling “grey” – just like organize/organise and color/colour. So follow this rule:

Gray is a color

Grey is a colour.

Unless your documents are intended exclusively for the UK, I would recommend using American spelling.

CAPITULATE AND RECAPITULATE

I received this query from a fellow in a neighboring country, and that was quite a surprise. “Could you shed some light on the meanings of "capitulate" and "recapitulate"?

Capitulate means to surrender, and recapitulate means to restate. At first glance, they seem to have nothing in common. "Recapitulate" certainly doesn't mean to surrender again (as this fellow wrongly assumed). However, both derive from the same Latin word, "capitulum", coming from "caput" (head or skull). It means “to organize under headings”.

The earliest use of "capitulate", in sixteenth-century England, was in the sense of “to list by chapters or headings, to enumerate or specify”. It took on the sense of drawing up articles of agreement or proposing terms, specifically to end a military conflict. Shakespeare is the first known user of this sense. In part 1 of Henry IV, the king says, "Percy, Northumberland, / The archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, / Capitulate against us." Henry is suggesting that these fellows are negotiating with him. By the end of the seventeenth century capitulate came to refer to succumb to an opponent or to an unwelcome demand. This is the sense which it still retains today.

"Recapitulate", on the other hand, has stuck closely to the meaning of its Latin source – to go through a text again, heading by heading. "Recapitulate" has always had the sense of summarizing or summing up.

AMOUNT, QUANTITY AND NUMBER

This particular question came from a colleague a bit closer to home – Tel Aviv. “What is the difference between amount, quantity and number?” He, of course, is worrying about usage and there is good reason to deal with this issue as many people confuse their readers by selecting the wrong word. In fact the subject is anything but clear cut.

Amount: An amount is the total of two or more quantities. You can measure an amount but you can’t count it, so we cannot say: “A large amount of people were infected with Swine Flu”. But we can say: “The amount of work the medical teams did was ten times greater in April than in March.”

By the way, amount can also be used as a verb: “The total expenditure for Swine Flu serum amounted to $10,150,000.

Quantity: A quantity is an unspecified or indefinite number or amount of something that we can measure or count. We often talk about large or small quantities of something. It is usually applied to inanimate objects so again it is unlikely that we would say: “A large quantity of people was infected with Swine Flu”. But we would say: “The Deputy Minister of Health ordered large quantities of serum to vaccinate children”.

Number: We use number to describe things or people that are countable. “A large number of people came down with the Swine Flu.”

NOTES, CAUTIONS AND WARNINGS

I really should not have waited until I received a query about correct usage of these terms, especially since I had nasty feedback from a customer when I corrected his text. He cited a document from the Netherlands as his proof of validity. With all due respect to his Dutch competitors, they are simply wrong. These words have very specific meanings which should never be modified.

A Note highlights information (usually in a procedure) that is important and should stand out from the body of text.

A Caution highlights information necessary to avoid causing damage to a system (software or hardware).

A Warning highlights information necessary to avoid causing injury to personnel using the equipment.

In all cases, these admonitions (and that is the correct term for them) are placed before the relevant text. It should be quite clear that you do not want to have a wretched technician hospitalized because he performed a step – and suffered the consequences – without have read the subsequent warning. Make sure he reads it first!