BRIGHOUSE

PROBUS CLUB

The vice-chairman of the club, Allan Dobson gave a talk entitled It’s Only Words-An Etymological Romp, at the February meeting. The talk was introduced as being the use of the 26 letters of the alphabet, the power they provided for making words and then using words in many combinations to provide humour and also how they could be arranged to give sentences with double meanings. The speaker had grown up in a house full of books and early in his life, how words were used became of interest to him. From early childhood games like i-spy, Consequences and Parsons Cat continued to further develop this interest and later was expanded during English lessons at Grammar School. The humorous element of the talk included examples of Spoonerisms, Limericks, Malapropisms and with items taken from Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense. In more recent times George Bush was renowned for Bushisms and in the same way sports commentators David Coleman and Murray Walker are remembered for making many a faux pas during their commentaries. Other items were related from Stanley Unwin, Charles Dickens with Wellerisms and Sweeties. He concluded by saying that we should remember all that had been said came from just using the 26 letters of the alphabet in so many different ways. The next meeting of Brighouse Probus Club is on Wednesday, March 9 when the speaker will be Sheila Lum who will give a talk entitled China - The Great Wall.