READERS’ WORDS

RE last week’s column on slang, I remember reading somewhere that as various words modify English, other words disappear. Try asking an 11-year-old to define “fortnight”. — Tom Addison

THE term “budgie smugglers” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, defined as “men’s brief, tight-fitting swimming trunks”. — Hugh Knight

I AM always reading about people being “in the throws” of things. The correct word is “throes”. Are these people being thrown around or wrapped in the kind of blanket now called a “throw” in décor magazines? No. Even when spelt correctly, this has lost its impact. “Throes” is an old word meaning “a painful struggle”. “In the throes of childbirth” would be appropriate, but these days even filling a suitcase seems to be a painful struggle for those who say they are “in the throes of packing”. This I can accept, but please, not “throws”. — Khaya Mphuthi

I THINK the ampersand is being abused. It is usually used in corporate titles such as Johnson & Johnson and so forth and can also be used in a decorative way. But the other day I received a piece of literature where the word “and” had been completely left out and replaced with an ampersand. The other thing I can’t get used to is when it is used in Afrikaans text. It just seems wrong. — John Kruger

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