The Amateur Etymologist

Cold shoulder

All of us at one time or another have been given the cold shoulder. This means we've been snubbed by someone or have received intentionally cold or unsympathetic treatment. I've always thought that the phrase literally meant someone's shoulder. But as I learnt today, the shoulder actually refers to the shoulder of an animal.

During the Middle Ages, the shoulder of an animal was the least desirable part for food. This meant that the shoulder was often the piece of meat left over that no one really wanted. Often, beggars would received shoulders of meat that were cold. And among the rich, if you as a guest overstayed your welcome, at the next meal, you would very likely receive a cold shoulder of meat which was a polite hint telling you that it's time for you to hit the road. What an amazing history for such a hurtful phrase.

I.e. vs E.g.

This is a simple one. I.e. is Latin for id est, which in English means, "that is". E.g. is exempli gratia, which means "for example". The two clearly don't mean the same thing. I.e. is not a substitute for e.g.

Example: There are many types of caffeine-laden soft drinks, e.g., Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper.

Example: The delivery service is available only on weekdays, i.e., from Monday to Friday.

When you use either short form in speech, you don't say the letters. You say the English phrase. So for the first example, when you say it out loud, you say, "There are many types of caffeine-laden soft drinks, for example, Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper." You don't ever say, "EEE-GEE."

Similarly, for the second sentence, you say, "The delivery service is available only on weekdays, that is, from Monday to Friday." You don't ever say, "I-EEE."

Please also note the punctuation marks in both short forms. It has a period after each letter: e.g. When you use it in a sentence, you pause after saying "for example", so you put a comma after the second period like this: "e.g.,"

It's the same with i.e. You write: "i.e.," when you use it in a sentence.

I hope that clears it up.

Interrobang

Sometimes, you learn things from your kids. A few days ago, my son told me about a punctuation mark he had learnt in school. It was called the interrobang. He said it was a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. And I said, "Really?!"

Aha. See how I used both a question mark and an exclamation point for my rhetorical exclamation? Well, the interrobang replaces that clumsy double punctuation mark. With the interrobang, a rhetorical statement expressed with some excitement can be rendered with a single mark. The interrobang looks like this: ‽

Example:

• "They did what‽"
• "She really said that‽"
• "How can this be‽"

I have never like the look of a string of question marks and exclamation points together. The only time I would do that was when I wrote TV scripts. With lines like, "Who said that?!" it was important to signal to the actor that the question had to be exclaimed.

Reading Wikipedia's entry on the interrobang, it seems Martin K. Speckter, an adman, was also tired of seeing the clumsy looking combination and he invented the interrrobang in 1962. He came up with the word by combining interrogation (point) + bang (printers' slang for exclamation point).

I should start using it more. It's not easy to produce though. In Microsoft Word, you can find the interrobang under Wingdings 2. I found four versions in my copy of MS Word 2003. I guess I'll need to set a shortcut key for it. Hmm, perhaps I should make the combination of ?! autocorrect into the interrobang. Now isn't that a great idea‽