Kevin's Korner - newsletter no. 3 (June 2013)

Today, it’s all in black and white. We’ll have a look at how English uses the two colours black and white. In general BLACK has negative connotations – there’s a threat in this darkness: The Black Maria was the police van you were thrown into if you were misbehaving in the streets in the old days. You were blacklisted if you didn’t pay your debts; a blackleg is that dreadful guy who keeps working when all his mates are on strike. A “Blaggard” (from Blackguard) is an immoral swine who often mistreats women. You can be blackballed by your enemies if they don’t want you to join their club. The black arts are the arts of black magic, of casting spells and putting curses on others.  The Black Hole of Calcutta was an 18th century prison, so small and airless that many prisoners died there – even today the phrase is used to evoke a nightmare scenario of claustrophobia and panic. The word blackout has at least 4 meanings: “Help! There’s no power!” – “Turn off all the lights so the Germans can’t bomb us!” – “He’s lost consciousness!” – “The Club refuses to talk to reporters!” But all need not be terrible and terrifying in the world of BLACK.

If you are not as black as you are painted then you are in fact suffering from the slander of others and are not as bad as they say. If your fi- nancial situation is in the black then all in well, certainly better than being in the red. A black tie event is one where you’ve got to put on your very best gear. A Black Pudding is a most loved blood sausage devoured voraciously in the north of England (for breakfast!!). And by the way, if an Australian tells you that some place is beyond the black stump, then it’s along way to go indeed! WHITE is, of course, much associated with purity – the bride marries in white clothing to show her pure state (or she used to!!).

You can be whiter than white – which means you have never done anything wrong in your life. You can also be as white as the driven snow, if your reputation is spotless. But there are other, more negative uses of WHITE: to whitewash someone’s reputation is the act of protecting your ally from harm, even if he or she is actually an evil character. White Trash is the American term for poor uneducated people – typically associated with Trailer Parks. A whiteout is extremely bad winter weather where visibility is reduced to zero. A White Elephant is an object that is useless or a project that has failed badly (Is the govern- ment’s austerity policy a white elephant?)

Finally, whitebait. A small but delicious fish, which, when fried in batter with a group of its friends, would make a wonderfully delicious holiday breakfast in my youth by the sea. Nothing has ever tasted better!

Kevin Charles Rowe