Another shepherd from the Laius household, he says, whom someone had told to get rid of a child, gave the baby to him. because fulsome does not mean full, it means insincere or excessively and insincerely flattering.
And after all, many words have a variety of different meanings, perhaps not quite as extreme as these contradictory uses of the word "fulsome ." But a parallel case perhaps might be the recent developments in the use of the word "literally," which of course, etymologically, if you're one of those literally pedants, means-- comes from Latin littera, "letter." So it means "to the letter," or "precisely," or "exactly."
As an example, I've got here Simon Heffer's "Strictly English" definition of the word "fulsome ." So he says, "We've all read the phrase about someone making a fulsome apology. Those who write it usually believe that the adjective means full or plentiful.
And to demonstrate this, I thought I'd take a recent, very public disagreement over the correct meaning of a particular English word. And this concerns the word fulsome , which you might remember it was used recently by Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, in her resignation letter to Theresa May, where she says at the bottom there, "I offer a fulsome apology to you and to the government for what has happened
Now, predictably, of course, this controversy was taken up by "Radio 4," and there was a debate on the "World at One" over the correct meaning of the word "fulsome ." It's a nice example, I think, of the way in which, for users of English, the niceties of correct usage are often more newsworthy than the actual news itself.
If we went around trying to insist on the earliest historical meanings of these words, we'd be in all kinds of confusion. So what happened to the word fulsome , subsequently? Well, if we look up the latest developments of the word in the OED, we can see that, by the 17th century,
mean-full, abundant, or plentiful. It's kind of what we'd expect from the word "fulsome ." It sort of sounds like it's going to mean that. So if we consider that the correct meaning of the word is the earliest one, then Priti Patel's fulsome apology is simply one that is very full.
and overdoing it. By the early 20th century, however, the word fulsome began to be used in a positive sense once again, perhaps owing to the ambiguity in expressions like "fulsome praise," in which it's difficult to understand or determine whether it's supposed to be negative, positive, or neutral. And so OED sense 5B is unrestrained, exuberant, effusive, lavish, wholehearted.
Another shepherd from the Laius household, he says, whom someone had told to get rid of a child, gave the baby to him. For example, the word fulsome is not a fancy synonym the word full.
Another shepherd from the Laius household, he says, whom someone had told to get rid of a child, gave the baby to him. If you were to thank someone for the fulsome letter that they sent you, would not be praising them, you would not be praising yourself,
by claiming that Priti Patel had got it wrong. And that what she should have said was "a full apology." And he claimed "fulsome " means insincere. She's actually said the opposite of what she meant to say.
So we had a debate between Stig Abell and reformed pedant and "Times" columnist Oliver Kamm about the correct meaning of this word. But what is the answer then to this vexed debate over the correct meaning of fulsome ? Who got it right?
Well, if we look in the Oxford English Dictionary, we might think of as the ultimate authority-- I know I'm slightly biased, but it's one place people would turn-- then we can see that the earliest uses of the word "fulsome ," which date back to the 14th century, mean-full, abundant, or plentiful.
We can work it out from the context. And of course, the phrases "fulsome apology" and "fulsome praise" are potentially ambiguous, as we've seen. But we don't usually have to interpret them in a vacuum.
He simply went on to accuse her of, what is for English speakers I suspect, an even worse sin-- that of using a longer word to sound more clever. So now, she's being accused of saying "fulsome " because it sounds better and more intelligent than "full." This is what HW Fowler, in his classic usage guide "Modern English Usage" of 1926, memorably encapsulated in the maxim, the love of the long word,
Language is more complicated than that. Turning to a dictionary can shed light on the ways in which a word like "fulsome " is used, but it doesn't necessarily provide us with clear right and wrong judgments.
So Deborah Cameron, the author of an important study of linguistic prescriptivism called "Verbal Hygiene," says that when-- Part of the reason for our unwillingness to accept the changing meanings of words like "fulsome " and the demise of the apostrophe is
In the case we've been looking at, it's a resignation letter in which she expresses clear regret for her actions. It's, of course, possible that the use of "fulsome " here was some kind of covert attempt to distance herself from the apology. It seems unlikely. What's clear, I think, is that Ms. Patel didn't use the word incorrectly, rather Stig Abell chose to deliberately misread
So unlike lexicographers, authors of usage guides issue strongly worded prescriptions that are based on little more than personal preference. As an example, I've got here Simon Heffer's "Strictly English" definition of the word "fulsome ." So he says, "We've all read the phrase about someone making a fulsome apology.
And this concerns the word fulsome , which you might remember it was used recently by Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, in her resignation letter to Theresa May, where she says at the bottom there, "I offer a fulsome apology to you and to the government for what has happened and offer my resignation." The editor of "The Times Literary Supplement," Stig Abell, responded to the news of this announcement
It's kind of what we'd expect from the word "fulsome ." It sort of sounds like it's going to mean that. So if we consider that the correct meaning of the word is the earliest one, then Priti Patel's fulsome apology is simply one that is very full. But if we were to take the view that the correct meaning of a word is the oldest meaning of the word,
It's perhaps this development, I suspect, that's perhaps typical of the British uncomfortableness with sincerity-- anyone being complimentary simply being gushy and overdoing it. By the early 20th century, however, the word fulsome began to be used in a positive sense once again, perhaps owing to the ambiguity in expressions like "fulsome praise," in which it's difficult to understand or determine whether it's supposed to be negative, positive, or neutral.
And in fact, what we can see from the evidence is that both senses 5A and 5B are still current today. So it seems, in fact, that there's real potential for ambiguity here-- a word that can be used to mean-- so when we talk about fulsome praise, for instance, we might mean it to mean abundant and heartfelt or perhaps overdone and insincere.
But nevertheless, at least by this stage, he'd realized he was wrong. He didn't, though, however, offer Ms. Patel an apology, fulsome or otherwise. He simply went on to accuse her of, what is for English speakers I suspect, an even worse sin-- that of using a longer word to sound more clever.
Now, these, of course, might seem like fair game. But here, we run the risk, I think, of falling into the same trap as the "Radio 4" discussion over the correct meaning of fulsome . Does it matter that the most powerful man in the world can't spell or can't be bothered to use a dictionary?
She is also a naturalist and a rehabilitator of aquatic avian species. She lives and works in San Francisco. Ladies and gentlemen, please help we welcome Megan Prelinger. Megan Prelinger: Thank you, Chris. Wow. That's one of the most fulsome introductions, ever. Chris: We're glad you're here.