What is the meaning and origin of ‘round robin’? (N Nagesh, Hyderabad)
Indians usually associate the term with sports. A round robin tournament is one in which every team plays every other team. In British English, however, the expression has another meaning. It is used to refer to a letter of complaint which many people have signed. It is in this sense that ‘round robin’ was first used in France. The expression comes from the French ‘ruban rond’ meaning ‘round ribbon’. In the old days, when the King was all-powerful, few people ever wrote a petition against him.
Anyone who dared to had his head chopped off. In case several people chose to sign the petition, the person whose signature appeared first was put to death. It was to avoid this fate that some clever officers came up with the idea of the round robin. What they did was to sign their names on a ribbon; and in order to confuse the King, they joined the two ends of the ribbon to make a circle. The round ribbon or robin was then glued to the bottom of the petition. This made it impossible for the King to figure out who had signed the petition first.
What is the difference between ‘reviled’ and ‘criticised’? (D James, Kochi)
First, let us deal with the pronunciation of ‘revile’. The first vowel sounds like the ‘i’ in ‘fit’ and ‘bit’, and the following syllable rhymes with ‘file’ and ‘mile’. The word is pronounced ‘ri-VILE’ with the stress on the second syllable. During the course of our life, we are all ‘criticised’ for something or the other. The criticism may come from a single individual or from many, and it may vary in intensity — it could be mild or very strong. We all get criticised, but not all of us are reviled in the course of our lifetime. When someone is reviled, people express their contempt for the individual in no uncertain terms — the criticism tends to be very strong and at times the people may even resort to using abusive language.
If you say, your neighbour is reviled, what you are suggesting is that most people in your neighbourhood don’t like him — and they don’t hesitate in letting him know they can’t stand him. It is not just one or two people who dislike him.
In many countries, politicians are reviled for their callous behaviour.
What is the meaning of ‘truck’ in the expression ‘have no truck with’? (Divya C, Chennai)
The expression is mostly used in informal contexts. When you say you do not wish to have ‘truck’ with someone, you are suggesting that you do not wish to have any dealing with the individual. You do not want to have anything to do with him.
Considering his reputation, I’ll have no truck with him.
The CEO has no truck with the local politicians.
The ‘truck’ in the expression has nothing to do with the vehicle we see on roads. It comes from the French ‘troque’ meaning ‘exchange’ or ‘barter’. So when you had ‘troque’ with someone, you did business with him. With the passage of time, the pronunciation of the word changed.
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“If money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?” — Unknown
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