sagacious (adj.) = shrewd (pronounced ‘suh-gey-shuhs’) from the Latin, sagax, sagac-: wise + -ious
e.g. With a self-made fortune of tens of billions of dollars, Warren Buffett has a reputation as one the most sagacious investors alive
salad days (pl. noun) = a time of youthful inexperience and indiscretion for full explanation, see box below
e.g. On a rainy day, Elizabeth Taylor no doubt enjoyed flicking through the photos of her eight marriages and casting her mind back to the salad days of each relationship
‘salad days’ was a phrase coined by Shakespeare in his play Antony and Cleopatra (1606); at one point, Cleopatra, regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar, says, ‘…My salad days, / When I was green in judgement, cold in blood…’
Shakespeare chose the image of the salad because the qualities Cleopatra associates with this youthful time are ‘ green in judgement’ and ‘ cold in blood’: two adjectives that may equally well be used of a nice, crunchy salad. Almost straight away, the phrase ‘salad days’ entered the mainstream, as shorthand to describe an immature phase in one’s life.
The term has featured in many films and songs; for example, the band Spandau Ballet (who were massive in the 1980s) referenced the expression in their song ‘Gold’, when they extended Cleopatra’s metaphor thus: ‘These are my salad days, slowly being eaten away.’
samizdat (noun) = books that had to be secretly published and distributed, because they’d been banned by the state (especially in the former USSR) (pronounced ‘sah-miz-daht’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The only practical information that the pupils ever got about sex was a samizdat sheet of illustrations circulated by one ‘progressive’ teacher
‘samizdat’ is a Russian word, meaning ‘a self-publishing house’. Between 1953 (when Stalin died) and 1988 (when Mikhail Gorbachev gave new freedoms to the Russian people, via the process of ‘glasnost’), the word ‘samizdat’ was used by Russians to describe books banned by the state (usually because these books offered political or religious views opposed to the state). To avoid detection, these forbidden tomes had to be painstakingly written out by hand, then passed carefully from reader to reader. Harsh punishments were doled out to those caught with a ‘samizdat’ edition.
An example of such a banned book is Dr Zhivago (1957). Despite containing no overt messages of political dissent, the book was outlawed because it apparently focused excessively on the views of individual characters, rather than on the welfare of the state. (The book enjoyed huge popularity in its ‘samizdat’ form.)
One intriguing aspect of ‘samizdat’ is that many of its readers were in fact Russian state officials – for, to work out if a book should be banned, it had first to be read by these apparatchiks. (And ‘samizdat’ copies of books have, of course, appeared outside Russia, too, in other countries where the state has sought to exercise total control: in Iran, for example, Salman Rushdie’s 1988 book The Satanic Verses, emerged in ‘samizdat’ form after it had been officially banned.)
sans serif (adj.) = (describing a style of font) aggressively plain, i.e. devoid of that final flourish of a tiny ornate line at the top or bottom of each letter (pronounced ‘son ser-if’) from the French, sans: without + serif: a tiny ornate line (as above), from the Dutch, schreef: a line
e.g. To give a down-to-earth impression to its customers, most Internet companies go in for modish sans serif logos
sapient (adj.) = wise; OR (derogatory in tone) apparently wise (but not in fact so) (pronounced ‘sey-pee-uhnt’) from the Latin, sapient-: being wise
e.g. Many people believe that planets other than our own also contain sapient life
sapphic (adj.) = (formal in tone) lesbian (pronounced ‘saf-ik’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The film The Kids are All Right (2010) – which charts the lives of a married lesbian couple based in California – is a tale of sapphic love
‘sapphic’ derives from ‘Sappho’, the name of an Ancient Greek poetess who lived on the isle of Lesbos (which also gives us the word ‘lesbian’) in c. 600 BC. The 3rd-century philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that Sappho was a ‘small and dark’ woman.
Sappho was also a great poet, so esteemed in the ancient world that she was deemed to be Homer’s equal. Until Sappho came along, poetry had been used almost exclusively to sing the praises of dead soldiers, but Sappho had the temerity to use the first person in her poetry (a bold innovation for the time) and to discuss complex human emotions, particularly the erotic. Modern literary critics have praised the startling imagery in Sappho’s work: ‘Love shook my heart like a wind falling on the oaks of a mountain’, is one of her lines. Sappho was married and had a daughter, yet she wrote love poems addressed to both men and women (though her poems contain zero physical descriptions of lesbian encounters).
The English word ‘sapphic’ wasn’t invented, though, until Victorian times, when French novelist Pierre Louys (1870–1925) claimed to have come across the poems of an ancient Lesbian poetess named Bilitis, who allegedly lived around Sappho’s time. The Bilitis poems were teeming with salacious details and lesbian sex galore; in time, the poet Bilitis – who was apparently a contemporary of Sappho – became confused with the poet Sappho in popular culture, and so everyone assumed Sappho’s work was full of lesbian sex, too. (This false impression survived intact even when the Bilitis poems were later revealed to be a hoax, perpetrated by this prurient Frenchman, Pierre Louys, who claimed to have ‘discovered’ them.) Today, then, the adjective ‘sapphic’ exclusively conjures up images of lesbian sex (which never actually appeared in the poet Sappho’s work).
saturnalia (noun) = a wild party (pronounced ‘sat-er-ney-lee-uh’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Various writers have produced new Bond stories recently, featuring Fleming’s original saturnalia of daring deeds, beautiful women and cruel villains
‘saturnalia’ means in Latin: ‘matters relating to the god Saturn’, and refers to the ancient Roman festival of Saturn held in late December, a period of general merrymaking.
In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who reigned over the world in the ‘Golden Age’: a time of peace, referred to in Greek mythology, when humans enjoyed the bounty of the earth, without needing to work, and a state of complete social equality. Reflecting these beliefs, the ‘saturnalia’ holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum, followed by a large public banquet and a carnival that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was allowed, and masters provided table service for their slaves, who were also permitted to insult their masters. The poet Catullus called it ‘the best of days’.
The celebrations of the ‘saturnalia’ continued into the 4th century AD; and, as the Roman Empire came under Christian rule, some of the tamer customs from the ‘saturnalia’ – including its timing, in late December – proceeded to inform the seasonal celebrations behind our own Christmas and New Year celebrations.
satyr (noun) = a man who is highly sexed (pronounced ‘sat-er’) in Greek and Roman myth, a ‘satyr’ was a lecherous and drunken woodland god; theirs was a strong look, being half-man and half-goat (with a man’s body but a goat’s ears, tail, legs and horns)
e.g. In his naked self-portrait Painter Working (1993), Lucian Freud painted himself as an ageing satyr
(the) old saw (set phrase) = the old saying from the Old English, sagu: a saying, related to the German, sage: legend
e.g. ‘Give me the boy until he is seven and I will show you the man’, runs the old saw, allegedly coined by the Jesuit religious order
schlock (noun) = inferior goods, trash (pronounced ‘shlok’) from the Yiddish, shlak, ultimately from the German, Schlacke: scum, dross
e.g. Critics of Walt Disney say he survived only by peddling his schlock to the most uncritical of audiences: children
screed (noun) = a long and tedious piece of writing (pronounced ‘skreed’) ‘screed’ started out as a variant of the noun ‘shred’; so, the meaning was originally ‘a shredded fragment, torn from a speech’, then evolved to mean ‘a long torn strip of words’, and, in time, ‘a long roll of writing’
e.g. Many of the academics who publicly hail James Joyce’s Ulysses as the greatet novel ever written, in private dismiss the 1,000-page book as a screed
to scry in (one’s mirror or crystal ball) (verb) = to foretell the future (using one’s mirror or crystal ball) from a shortening (in 1520) of the English, to descry: to catch sight of
e.g. George Soros is such a prescient investor, that it is as if he scrys in his mirror before making a purchase
scuttlebutt (noun) = (informal in tone) gossip a ‘scuttlebutt’ originally meant, in 1805, a ‘water cask kept on a ship’s deck’; then, since sailors used to gather around this scuttlebutt / water cask for a good gossip, in time ‘scuttlebutt’ evolved to mean ‘gossip’
e.g. Journalists are skilled at transforming mere scuttlebutt into plausible-sounding reports – often by inserting statements like ‘a close friend said…’
to secede from (a union) (verb) = to withdraw formally from (a union) (pronounced ‘si-seed’) from the Latin, secedere, from se-: apart + cedere: to go
e.g. It was not until 1830 that Belgium seceded from the Netherlands
seer (noun) = (humorous in tone) an expert who provides forecasts of the future in a particular field, such as economics or sport from the English words, see + -er; a ‘seer’ originally referred, in the 14th century, to a person who was supposed to be able to predict the future owing to a supernatural insight
e.g. When England was knocked out of the Euro 2012 football championships, the seers on the BBC sofa looked stunned
to semaphore (a message) (verb) = to send (a message) as if by semaphore (a visual signalling apparatus with mechanically moving arms, used on train tracks) (pronounced ‘sem-uh-fohr’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Over dinner, she sat turned towards him, her legs pointing in his direction and her entire body semaphoring her desire
‘to semaphore’ comes from the French, ‘semaphore’: ‘a bearer of signals’, and ultimately from the Greek, ‘sema’: ‘signal’ + ‘phoros’: ‘bearer’, from ‘pherein’: ‘to carry’.
A ‘semaphore’ was one of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal; it consisted of an erect pole, placed right next to a railway track. Out of this jutted an ‘arm’ (often made of metal) that, via its particular angle of inclination, provided a variety of indications to approaching train drivers.
After the design was patented in the early 1840s, the ‘semaphore’ soon became the most widely used form of mechanical signal in the world. Nowadays, though, colour light signals have replaced semaphore signals in many countries. But the term ‘to semaphore a message’ is still used to convey the sense of someone desperately signalling a communication – such as romantic interest – to someone else.
serried (adj.) = (of rows of people or things) tightly packed together (pronounced ‘ser-eed’) from the French, serré: close together, ultimately based on the Latin, sera: lock
e.g. During the protests against capitalism in London, serried ranks of tents could be seen outside St Paul’s Cathedral
sesquipedalian (adj.) = (of a person) using long words (pronounced ‘ses-kwi-pi-dey-lee-uhn’) for full explanation, see box opposite
e.g. Many academics are difficult to understand because they’re sesquipedalian
‘sesquipedalian’ finds its origins in Roman times, when the poet Horace wrote a work called Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) in 18 BC.
In it, Horace criticised overlong words and used a purposefully long expression to define such words: ‘sesquipedalia verba’, meaning literally ‘words that are a foot and a half long’ (from the Latin, ‘sesqui-’: ‘half as much again’ + ‘pes’: ‘foot’, thus evoking the image of a word that is 50 per cent longer than a standard one).
shamanic (adj.) = spiritual, but unhinged (pronounced ‘shey-muhn-ik’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. In the Pirates of the Carribbean film series, Johnny Depp’s character Captain Jack Sparrow, with his blackened eyes and flowing robes, emits a decidedly shamanic air
The word ‘shaman’ – originally a Russian word that is ultimately from the Sanskrit ‘srama’, meaning ‘a religious exercise’ – came to the West in 1692, after first evolving in Russia, Mongolia and China.
A ‘shaman’ was a man prized within a tribe for his magical powers – specifically for his ability to enter the spirit world, and come back with solutions for any health problems afflicting the living. This gift apparently derived from the fact that he had himself once been gravely ill (but had then recovered), allowing him a brief insight into the other world and into cures for illnesses. In order to enter their spiritual trance (necessary for the curing process), shamans used a variety of catalysts, notably drugs (such as cannabis and cactus plants), music (especially drums) and even activities such as sword-fighting.
Shamans used to be prevalent across most cultures, but now only exist in a few places, such as Africa and Papua New Guinea. The adjective ‘shamanic’ today is used to evoke the image of someone slightly unhinged (perhaps in a nod to every shaman’s necessary brush with death, as described earlier) but with a peculiar insight into spiritual matters. Captain Jack Sparrow, the character played by Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, for example, is of this type, in the sense that he is tinged with madness (after extended solitary confinement in Davy Jones’s Locker), and now desires communion with the spirit world (as evidenced by his quest for immortality).
Shavian (adj.) = (of drama) strongly promoting a social message, but also witty (like the plays of George Bernard Shaw) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Critics described the new play – which depicted the squalid living conditions of some immigrants in the United Kingdom, but also burst with witticisms – as a Shavian masterpiece
‘Shavian’ is from ‘Shavius’, a Latinised version of the surname ‘Shaw’ – specifically, George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), the Irish playwright who revolutionised London theatre and who was, by the end of his life, famed throughout the world. Shaw was a strong socialist who was particularly keen – like Charles Dickens before him – to highlight the exploitation of the working classes. In his plays, this social commentary was leavened by healthy dollops of humourous quotes in the style of his contemporary, Oscar Wilde (1854–1900).
Shaw’s most famous play is Pygmalion (1912), which was later transformed into the more famous musical film My Fair Lady (1964), starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a man who created a statue of a woman out of ivory; later the statue comes to life. Shaw explored this same theme in his play, which centres around Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, and his training up of cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, with the goal of passing her off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. Shaw’s social message was clear: as well as highlighting the suppression of women at that time, the play is a satire of the British class system. And humourous quotes – that other hallmark of ‘Shavian’ drama – enliven the action, such as this observation by Eliza’s father: ‘I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle class morality.’
Shaw led a long and varied life, and also co-founded the LSE (London School of Economics) amongst other achievements. He was noted, too, for his unusual marriage, which was never consummated – at his wife’s insistence.
shtick (noun) = an entertainment routine (to get attention) (pronounced ‘shtik’) from the Yiddish, shtik: an act, ultimately from the German, stück: play
e.g. Leslie Nielsen’s bumbling straight-man schtick made him one of Hollywood’s leading comedy acts in films such as The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear
sibylline (adj.) = (of a person) giving out enigmatic-sounding predictions about the future (like a Sibyl, a Greek oracle) (pronounced ‘sib-uh-line’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The French pharmacist Nostradamus (1503–66) is still famed for his sibylline statements such as, ‘After there is great trouble among mankind, a greater one is prepared’
The word ‘sibylline’ comes from the Greek word, ‘sibylla’, meaning ‘prophetess’. There were many sibyls in the ancient world; the earliest ones issued their prophecies at certain holy sites, and were said to be under divine influence. Sibyls did not have a name of their own, but were known by a place name referring to the location of their holy site.
For example, the Erythraean Sibyl was famous in around the 7th century BC for her prophesising under the divine influence of the god at Erythrae (a town in Ionia, now Turkey). This particular Sibyl is supposed to have predicted the Trojan War, but in a very mysterious way – by writing on leaves, then arranging these leaves so that the initial letters of each leaf also formed a word. (Hence ‘sibylline’ still refers today to a prediction about the future, one delivered in an enigmatic way.)
Michelangelo (1475–1564) provided us with the most iconic vision of the sibyls, which can still be seen in the frescos of the Sistine Chapel in Rome; in the painter’s depiction, they are female but so aged that it’s hard to tell their sex.
signally (adv.) = notably from the French, signalé: distinguished, the past participle of signaller
e.g. For years, the world signally failed to stop Hitler murdering so many Jews
simian (adj.) = like a monkey (pronounced ‘sim-ee-uhn’) from the Latin, simia: ape, from the Greek, simos: flat-nosed
e.g. People with a simian appearance are often considered attractive, as their features are usually quite neat
sinecure (noun) = a position requiring very little work, but which does pay a salary (pronounced ‘sahy-ni-kyoor’) from the Latin, sine cura: without care
e.g. Most non-executive directorships are really sinecures, paying £20,000 a year for perhaps five days’ work per month
Sino- (+ another country) (combining form) = Chinese and (another country) from the Latin, Sinae: the Chinese, ultimately from the Arabic, Sin: China
e.g. Aware that China will be the biggest economy in the world by 2020, American politicians are united in their desire to forge a stronger Sino–American relationship
Sisyphean (adj.) = (of a task) pointless and endless (pronounced ‘sis-if-ee-uhn’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Holding together a coalition government – made up of constantly diverging views – must be a Sisyphean task
‘Sisyphean’ is from the Greek name ‘Sisuphos’ (‘Sisyphus’), a man who severely offended the gods, and, as punishment, was condemned to the eternal task of rolling a large boulder to the top of a hill, from which it always rolled down again.
Sisyphus was the first king of Ephyra (later the Greek city of Corinth); and, from Homer onwards, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men. At the end of his life, when Thanatos, king of the dead, came to claim him, Sisyphus’ cunning came to the fore; he slyly asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the chains (intended for Sisyphus) actually worked. With Thanatos all thrust up as a result of his ensuing demonstration, Sisyphus scarpered. This caused an uproar since no human on earth could die with Thanatos thus incapacitated. (Eventually the god of war, Ares – who was particularly irked by this turn of events, since Ares’ battles had suddenly lost their sparkle now that no one could actually die any more–freed Thanatos from his chains.)
As punishment for this and other acts of trickery, Zeus, king of the gods, made Sisyphus roll a huge stone up a steep hill for all eternity: when Sisyphus had pushed the stone to the top, it always rolled back down, forcing him to begin the task again, in an endless loop. Zeus purposefully chose this devilish punishment to prove to Sisyphus that he, Sisyphus, was not as clever as Zeus–despite Sisyphus’ hubristic belief to the contrary. And pointless and interminable activities are still described as ‘Sisyphean’ today.
skein (noun) = a tangled arrangement (pronounced ‘skayn’) from the Middle English skeine, ultimately from the Old French, escaigne: a coil of yarn
e.g. She had plastic surgery to remove the skeins of crows’ feet clustered around her eyes
slattern (noun) = a dirty, untidy woman (pronounced ‘slat-ern’) from the Old English verb, to slatter: to splash awkwardly (historically used of women considered untidy)
e.g. Every morning on the way to work, I see a slattern pushing a supermarket trolley on the other side of the road
snaggletoothed (adj.) = having bad teeth (that are either broken or jutting out) from the English word, snaggletooth: a deep-sea fish with unappealing-looking teeth
e.g. It’s virtually impossible for a snaggletoothed actor to make it in Hollywood
to cock a snook at (someone / something) (set phrase) = to show contempt for (someone / something) ‘to cock a snook at’ literally means ‘to place one’s hand so that the thumb touches one’s nose and the fingers are spread out, so as to show contempt’ (of unknown origin)
e.g. During his lifetime, Kim Jong Il never missed an opportunity to cock a snook at the United States
sodality (noun) = an association (often religious) (pronounced ‘soh-dal-i-tee’) from the Latin, sodalitas: sodality, from sodalis: comrade
e.g. In Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, some of the villains are members of Opus Dei, a sodality of Catholics
(a) solvent of (a negative situation) (set phrase) = something that acts to solve (a negative situation) (pronounced ‘sol-vuhnt’) from the Latin, solvent-: loosening, from solvere: to loosen; the precise way in which a ‘solvent’ solves a negative situation is by dissolving (or loosening) it
e.g. A hug from a friend is a solvent of loneliness
somatic (adj.) = relating to the body (as opposed to the mind) (pronounced ‘soh-mat-ik’) from the Greek, somatikos: of the body, from soma: body
e.g. You feel powerful emotions not just in your head but also somatically, in your gut
to sough (verb) = (of the wind or of the sea) to make a moaning sound (pronounced ‘suf’) from the Old English, swogan: to make a moaning sound
e.g. The only sound was the wind soughing
sphinx (noun) = an inscrutable person, who keeps their thoughts secret for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The enigmatic François Mitterand was long regarded as the sphinx of French politics
The word ‘sphinx’ comes from the Greek word ‘sphinx’, used of a winged monster from Greek mythology, with the head of a woman and the body of a lioness. (The Greek word ‘sphinx’ itself ultimately derives from the Greek ‘sphingein’, meaning ‘to squeeze’ – perhaps because lionesses kill their prey by squeezing and strangling them until the breath leaves them. The word ‘sphincter’– which likewise does a lot of squeezing – derives from the same Greek root.)
The sphinx of Greek mythology is said to have guarded the entrance to the ancient Greek city of Thebes, and to have posed to any traveller wanting to enter the city, the most famous riddle in history: ‘Which creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening?’ Anyone unable to answer this question, the sphinx would strangle, then devour. In the end, it was Oedipus who solved the riddle, answering, ‘Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then with a cane (i.e. three ‘feet’) in old age.’ The sphinx’s response to her riddle being cracked thus was to commit suicide by hurling herself from the high rock on which she sat.
To this day, you can see huge stone sphinxes next to the Pyramids in Egypt, with their human faces and lions’ bodies. And the word ‘sphinx’ is still used to refer to anyone whose inscrutable appearance calls to mind the sphinx of ancient Greek mythology, who steadfastly refused to reveal the answer to her riddle.
spiel (noun) = plausible but glib talk (often employed by salespeople) (pronounced ‘shpeel’) from the German, spiel: a game
e.g. When he spotted in his forecourt the young couple with their matching Rolex watches, the car salesman rubbed his hands, sidled over and began his spiel
spoliation (noun) = the act of plundering (pronounced ‘spoh-leeey-shuhn’) from the Latin, spoliare: to strip skin from an animal
e.g. The London riots were characterised by looting and spoliation
spoor (noun) = the trail left by a human or by an animal (pronounced ‘spore’) from the Old English, spor: footprint
e.g. He held her wineglass up to the light: her lipstick stain was still there, and he spent a few minutes marvelling at this, her spoor
Stakhanovite (noun) = an exceptionally industrious worker (pronounced ‘stuh-kan-uh-vite’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz, took only one vacation – lasting just five weeks – during the whole 50 years the cartoon ran for: his was a Stakhanovite work ethic
The word ‘Stakhanovite’ derives from the name of Soviet coal miner Aleksei Grigorevich Stakhanov (1906–77), an exceptionally hard worker whose feats of productivity were held up by the Soviet government as a prime example of the efficiency of the socialist economic system.
Born in Russia, Stakhanov began working in a mine in the Ukraine in 1927. His strength and skills apparently changed overnight in 1935, when he took a local course in mining: soon afterwards, it was reported by the Soviet authorities that he’d mined 14 times as much coal as his quota required (to be precise, a record 102 tonnes of coal in under six hours). In the resulting blaze of publicity, his face was splashed across newspapers and posters, and his craggy features even attracted the attention of the world at large, when he graced the cover of Time magazine. In the Soviet Union, he was held up as a model of worker productivity for the whole country to emulate: Stalin parlayed Stakhanov’s records into the Stakhanovite movement, where workers who exceeded production targets were rewarded with the title ‘Stakhanovite’ (and anyone opposing the movement was labelled a ‘wrecker’).
Scorn has since been poured on the validity of Stakhanov’s record. In 1985, The New York Times printed a story alleging that Stakhanov was in fact secretly aided by many other workers to break the record (so as to boost Communist party morale). Regardless, it’s still Aleksei Grigorevich Stakhanov’s name – and his alone – that is evoked today when we describe someone very industrious as ‘Stakhanovite’.
statist (adj.) = (of a political system) with the state in exclusive control of the economy (pronounced ‘stey-tist’) from the English words, state + ist
e.g. After the credit crunch, people are less keen on capitalism and are now more accepting of statist policies by governments
statuary (noun) = statues, regarded as a collective (pronounced ‘statue-ary’) from the Latin, statua: stood up, from stare: to stand
e.g. In films about the Roman empire, the villas of the rich are full of slaves and statuary
stalking horse (set phrase) = (usually in politics) a minor player who challenges the party leader (so that the minor player’s patron, a more powerful figure in the shadows, can gauge – before announcing his own candidature – whether there is any demand for a new leader) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. When the largely unknown back-bench politician Sir Anthony Meyer challenged Margaret Thatcher in 1989 for the Conservative Party leadership, journalists speculated that Sir Anthony was a stalking horse for a more credible candidate
The term ‘stalking horse’ started life in the 16th century, originally deriving from the practice of hunting wild ducks. Hunters noticed that these ducks – which would fly off immediately if approached by humans – would happily tolerate the close presence of horses. Availing themselves of this knowledge, the human hunters – all crouched down and keeping their upper bodies hidden – would walk alongside their horses and, in this way, be able to gradually approach the ducks (who apparently did not notice that they were being approached by a six-legged horse) until the ducks were within firing range. Horses used for this purpose were called ‘stalking horses’.
In a similar way, in politics, a ‘stalking horse’ is an individual who provides cover for another, more powerful person to attack. Specifically, in politics, a ‘stalking horse’ throws his hat into the ring, to see if there’s any demand for a change of party leader. The ‘stalking horse’ will be a minor figure, with a pretty much zero chance of being accepted as leader himself; but his leadership challenge will have ‘tested the water’ for a far more powerful player watching from the shadows. (Likewise, in business, a minor company might make a ‘stalking horse’ bid for another company, to see how the bid target reacts to the price proposed; then a more powerful company – who now knows what the lowest acceptable price is – will come in and finish off the target.) In both cases, the minor figure of the ‘stalking horse’ and the major player behind the scenes are in cahoots all along; the incentive for the ‘stalking horse’ is that he will gain the patronage of the more powerful figure.
In the case of Sir Anthony Meyer, he launched his leadership bid against Margaret Thatcher when support for her was waning, shortly after Nigel Lawson resigned as Chancellor. (So minor a figure was Sir Anthony that the press went so far as to label him ‘a stalking donkey’.) But the resulting leadership election did show that many MPs had lost confidence in Margaret Thatcher, and in the end, she was replaced by John Major, in 1990. (In this particular case, Sir Anthony seems not to have been in cahoots with any other MP in particular, but just wished to act as a catalyst to plunge Maggie into a leadership battle with others more powerful than himself. Later, Sir Anthony Meyer was deselected by his constituency party for his ‘treachery’ towards Margaret Thatcher, and a tabloid paper revealed he’d conducted a decades-long extra-marital affair with a former model and blues singer.)
to stonewall (a question) (verb) = to refuse to answer (a question) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. When he confronted his wife with the hotel room receipt as evidence of her adultery, she stonewalled his questions and stormed out of the house
The term ‘stonewall’ first appeared as a nickname for General Thomas J. Jackson (1824–63), to describe his unyielding stance in war. General Jackson fought in the American Civil War (1861–5); he was on the side of the Confederate States, the name for the 11 Southern states who severed their links with the rest of the United States (following Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election victory and subsequent avowal to phase out slavery: anathema to the highly profitable cotton states of the Deep South, who relied heavily on slave labour).
Jackson earned his famous nickname ‘stonewall’ in 1861, owing to his behaviour in one particular battle. As Jackson’s side began to crumble under a heavy enemy assault, Jackson’s brigade provided crucial reinforcements, and the sight of Jackson refusing to yield led to a fellow commander allegedly shouting, ‘There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer.’
He may have been on the losing side in the war, but Jackson’s nickname of ‘stonewall’ is still used today, to evoke a similarly non-yielding position in the face of a verbal (rather than a physical) assault.
stool pigeon (noun) = an informer (especially for the police) ‘stool pigeon’ alludes to the 19th-century practice of tying a pigeon to a stool in order to attract other pigeons, which were then shot
e.g. When the drug-running gang discovered he was a stool pigeon, they killed him
stratified (adj.) = (of a group) arranged into different layers or strata (pronounced ‘strat-uh-fahyd’) from the Latin, stratum: horizontal layer
e.g. The United Kingdom is more obsessed with class structure than the United States and, as a result, the United Kingdom is more socially stratified
to attack a straw man (set phrase) = (in politics) to give the false impression of having refuted an opponent’s argument when you’ve, in fact, merely replaced the real argument with a superficially similar (but weaker) proposition that is easier to refute for full explanation, see box below
e.g. The politician’s speech burst with emotion as he attacked the opposition leader; but afterwards, his approval rating failed to rise because he had so obviously been attacking a straw man, rather than really tackling his chief opponent’s arguments
A ‘straw man’ refers to a human-like figure made of straw: one that is easily knocked down, such as a dummy used in military training (the exact origins of the term are unclear).
An example of someone attacking a straw man – instead of the real argument they face – is as follows:
Person X: ice creams are nice
Person Y: but if we only ate ice cream, we’d all develop diabetes and die
In this case, person Y is attacking a straw man by reframing the argument, moving it away from whether or not ice creams are nice (which is a hard thing to disprove as the statement is so subjective), to the easier-to-attack statement that exclusively eating ice creams will lead to health problems.
strictures (pl. noun) = restrictions (pronounced ‘strik-chers’) from the Latin, strictura, from stringere: to draw tight
e.g. Islam’s strictures – including a ban on alcohol consumption – are well documented
Stygian (adj.) = very dark (pronounced ‘stij-ee-uhn’) for full explanation, see box below
e.g. Princess Diana met her end in a car that veered out of control in a Stygian tunnel
‘Stygian’ is the adjective denoting ‘The Styx’, a very dark river in Greek mythology that formed the boundary between earth and the Underworld.
The Greek word behind ‘Stygian’ is ‘stygos’, meaning ‘hatred’; indeed, the river Styx in ancient Greek mythology was similar to the Christian arena of hatred and suffering, hell. For example, in the poem ‘Divine Comedy’ by Dante (written in the 14th century), the river Styx is portrayed as a marsh where animosity teems, and where the wrathful and sullen are punished by being drowned in the Styx’s murky waters for all eternity.
In keeping with its sinister origins, the adjective ‘Stygian’ has come to refer to anything that’s very dark and dismal.
subfusc (adj.) = dull, gloomy (pronounced ‘suhb-fuhsk’) from the Latin, subfuscus, from sub-: somewhat + fuscus: dark brown
e.g. Undertakers generally wear a subfusc suit
sub specie aeternitatis (set phrase) = viewed in comparison to eternity (i.e. from a detached, universal perspective) (pronounced ‘sub spek-ee-ey ay-tern-i-tat-is’) from the Latin, sub specie aeternitatis: under the aspect of eternity
e.g. Unlike animals, humans can rise above their own limited perspective and view their lives sub specie aeternitatis; from this giddy height, all human activity can appear without meaning
to sublimate (an unpleasant impulse) into (a pleasant activity) (verb) = to transform (an unpleasant impulse) into (a pleasant activity) (pronounced ‘suhb-luh-meyt’) from the Latin, sublimare: to elevate, from sub-: up to + limen: the top of a door; ‘sublimation’ was a 14th-century phrase used in the medieval practice of alchemy, to refer to ‘the process of purifying (a liquid) by heating into a vapour’
e.g. Lucian Freud was a serious gambler who lost and made millions on the horses; but most of the time, he successfully sublimated this addiction to risk into making art
to suborn (someone) (verb) = to induce (someone), via a bribe or via other means, to commit an unlawful act (pronounced ‘suh-born’) from the Latin, subornare: to incite secretly, from sub-: secretly + ornare: to equip
e.g. When, all of a sudden, the witnesses changed their minds and refused to testify, the judge sensed the mafia had suborned them
to subsist on (certain foods or handouts) (verb) = to support oneself at a minimal level on (certain foods or handouts) from the Latin, subsistere: to stand firm, from sub-: from below + sistere: to stand
e.g. After he lost all his money in Madoff’s investment scam, the old man subsisted on buns donated by well-wishers
substantive (adj.) = important, due to a firm basis in reality from the Old French, substantia: essence
e.g. Some journalists can whip up an article out of thin air, with absolutely nothing substantive in the piece at all
succès fou (set phrase) = a wild success (pronounced ‘suk-say foo’) from the French, succès fou: a wild success
e.g. After noticing that customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce trousers at exactly the same points of strain (such as at pocket corners), Levi Strauss started using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants: blue jeans have been a succès fou ever since
sui generis (adj.) = constituting a class of its own; unique (pronounced ‘soo-i ge-ne-ris’) from the Latin, sui generis: of its own kind
e.g. You can tell if a painting is a Francis Bacon from a mile off, for each of his creations was very much sui generis
supererogatory (adj.) = (of a task) performed beyond the required degree (pronounced ‘soo-per-uh-rog-uh-tawr-ee’) from the Latin, supererogare: to pay in addition, from super-: over + erogare: pay out
e.g. He surprised his wife by putting his hands on her shoulders and administering a supererogatory massage
swag (noun) = an ornamental fabric or garland suspended high in the air, which hangs down at intervals from the Old English, swingan: to swing
e.g. Once you take your seat before a play begins and you look around you at the swag of the darkened theatre, the real world outside melts away
swain (noun) = a male lover (pronounced ‘sweyn’) from the Old Norse, sveinn: lad
e.g. Most fathers are sceptical when their daughters introduce them to their first swain
swingeing (adj.) = thumpingly large (pronounced ‘swin-jing’) from the Old English, swengan: to shake
e.g. When you buy a ticket online, budget airlines often hit you with a swingeing debit card charge
sylvan (adj.) = concerning the woods; pleasantly rural (pronounced ‘sil-vuhn’) from the Latin, silvanus: pertaining to the wood, from silva: wood
e.g. Above the fireplace hung a painting of a sylvan landscape