Literary f igures have last word
QUESTION The word Scrooge was taken from the character in A Christmas Carol. Which other words started off as the names of literary characters? SCROOGE entered the popular lexicon as a description of a miserly person but the dictionary is crammed with other words taken from literary characters
ON a simlar theme, Grinch is the description of someone who is a spoilsport or grump and is taken from Dr Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
A malapropism is when somebody jumbles their words accidentally to comical effect and comes from one of the best-loved humourous characters in drama, Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan’s The Rivals. Among Mrs Malaprop’s blunders is ‘she’s as headstrong as an allegory’ instead of ‘as an allegator.’ The inspiration for her name is a French phrase, mal à propos meaning misplaced.
Another play which spawned a well-used word was William Davenant’s The Cruel Brother in the early 17th century. Nicholas Rowe also used a character callled Lothario in the following century but he was Davenant’s creation.
Perhaps the oldest literary character whose name has been incorporated in the English language is Mentor. Taking his name from a Greek word meaning ‘purpose’ or ‘intent’, Mentor was a friend and adviser of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey, written in the 8th century BC.
It wasn’t until 2,500 years later that his name first came to be used generally for any similarly helpful guide or counsellor, in the early 1700s. Margaret Duffy, by email.
QUESTION What’s the longest uncut scene in a film? FURTHER to the earlier answer, the mention of Russian Ark, the 99-minute film shot in a single take, reminds me of the time that it was shown at my film club.
An interval was programmed so the reel could be changed in the projector – prompting the observation that this was one of the rare occasions when a film had taken longer to show than it had to make.