This past fall, President Clinton announced a $364 million bailout for cash-strapped Los Angeles County. In the course of his speech, the President said, "The United States is a good citizen. We don't welsh on our debts."

Soon after, Welsh-American officials vented their anger about Mr. Clinton's use of welsh  as a pejorative verb meaning "to avoid payment." Rees Lloyd, a lawyer for Twm Sion Cati-Welsh-American Legal Defense Fund, thundered: "It's outrageous that the President of the United States would use this slur in a statement he knows would be reported and would be legitimized throughout the country." 

The brouhaha over President Clinton's employment of  welsh  focuses attention on the fact that names of tribes and peoples can become everyday words that relate to some supposed characteristic of the group. Thus, a Philistine is a crass, materialistic person who generally doesn't lead a Spartan existence marked by strict self- discipline.

Sometimes these eponymous words become so embedded in our language that they appear in lower case. Identify five words that spring from the names of people or tribes. Use the letters provided to begin each word:







1. b_____






2. b_____






3. d_____



 


4. l_____






5. v_____











White House press aide Ginny Terzano quickly responded to the accusations against President Clinton: "There never was any intention to use [the term welsh] as an ethnic slur. The President simply used this word to point out that we must not fail deliberately to meet our debts."

Rees Lloyd fired back that Clinton's apology was inadequate: "This sure is a left-handed apology. 'I apologize for using it, but it's O. K. because this is what it means.' The President should be ashamed. "

Oh, oh. Two days after Lloyd's statement, Dr. Sharlene McEvoy, of Sinistral Special Interest Group, a cluster of left-handers, leapt into the fray. Reacting to Lloyd's offhand (which apparently is the left hand) use of "left-handed apology," McEvoy stated, "A 'left-handed compliment' really means 'no compliment.' It means an insult. 
In general, left-handedness has had a negative connotation." 

Dr. McEvoy is right -- which, of course, is the opposite of "left." To the estimated five percent of the population whose paws face south, 
many devices, from doorknobs to school desks, from athletic gear to musical instruments, from can openers to flush handles, seem to be made for those whose paws face north. What is even more insidious is that the English language itself seems designed to libel the left-handed. I may seem to be sinister, gauche and gawky (all descended from Latin and French words meaning "left"), but I'm actually dexterous and adroit (From the Latin and French for "right"). 

Now that you're on the right track and fast becoming my right-hand man or woman (surely a right-handed compliment), I'll ask you to identify three more left-handed expressions with negative suggestions:



6. gawky: You have

.




7. unaware: You're

.




8. disorganized: The

.

 



Test your word savvy against Richard -- and win a prize. The first peron to e-mail SALON with the correct answer (or, if no correct answer is received, the closest answer) will receive a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books and Music. Please include your full name and mailing address. A single contestant may only receive the prize twice a year.






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We will let you know by e-mail if you are a winner. The correct answers will appear in next issue's VERBIVORE.  





The solution to last issue's Verbivore was: 1. Margaret Court. 2. Sally Ride. 3. Larry Speakes. 4. William Wordsworth. 5. Lorena Bobbitt. 
The winner was Scott Bongiorno.