It is perhaps a conceit, an exaggeration, or just inaccurate, but in the few moments I spend not thinking about or slaving over this column I have the audacity to call myself an author.
My latest book – Golf In Scotland In The Black & White Era – has just been published. It is a photo-led nostalgia book which took many hours of research to put together.
It makes a fine gift for a seasoned golfer, I will boldly claim.
I enjoy the challenge of crafting words to put in a book. And the words in this latest offering have a lot of work to do. They should complement the photo they describe, but not be so intrusive that they detract from the image.
Above all, they must be succinct.
Therefore, each word has to earn its place. Each must be weighed and found worthy of inclusion. When selecting which words to use, tautology becomes my enemy.
Tautology is, as you know, a phrase or expression in which the same thing is said twice in different words. You see tautologies all the time: new initiative; future plans; past history; rally together; temper tantrum; adequate enough.
In each example above, two words are used when one would have sufficed.
“Discarded litter that people had thrown away” is triply tautological. “At this present moment in time” is six words that boil down to “now”.
My least favourite example isn’t, in the strictest sense, a tautology but grates upon my ear as it is used almost automatically without thought for what it actually means. It is “brand-new”. I never think “brand” is needed.
That word coupling (a collocation is the proper term) has an interesting history.
It goes back to the Old English “brand”, meaning a piece of burning wood. The term was applied to objects fresh from the forge or furnace – so newly-made they glowed like a brand. But everyone has forgotten this, if they ever knew.
In any case, if you have a brand-new pair of sun-glasses, brand-new coat, or sing that Papa’s got a brand-new bag – none of those things are forged in fire. A more accurate term for sunglasses straight from the furnace would be “blob of melted plastic”.
I think brand-new as a collocation is a superfluous, tautological use of language. If something is new, then it is just new. I have a new book, not a brand-new book.
Steve will sign copies of Golf In Scotland In The Black & White Era at Waterstones, St Andrews, next Saturday, July 16, from 1pm. And is appearing at an R&A Meet The Author event at the World Golf Museum, St Andrews, on Monday, July 11, from 5.30pm.
The book can be purchased directly from www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk
Word of the week
Pusillanimous (adjective)
Lacking courage, faint-hearted. EG: “The man is bold in letters, but pusillanimous on the fairways when it comes to approach shots.”
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
