Saturday, September 13, 2014
Anaptronym alert
In a brief account of world responses to Scotland's referendum on secession:
India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, looked baffled when asked to comment on the possible break-up of the United Kingdom . "Break-up of the United Kingdom? I don't think there is any possibility of that. God forbid!" she said, before a whispered aside from an aide prompted another terse but bewildered line. "It's for Scotland to decide, I have nothing to say on this."I don't know Hindi but I'm pretty sure, from Indo-European roots, that Swaraj means something like "self-government". So we have Mrs Self-Government completely unaware of self-government. Anaptronym!
Labels: Aptronym Alert
¶ 5:24 PM
