READERS’ WORDS

Neither a vegetarian nor a vegan am I. Notwithstanding, I take up the challenge to defend a “lettuce” when it’s mentioned in the same breath with a “bigot” in your last Sunday column. Lettuce, a common garden vegetable, is highly regarded for its succulent leaves that are used especially in salads. It deserves better treatment than your phrase: “bigots with lettuce for brains”. The point is: lettuce has more brains than bigots. — Khoeli Pholosi Some people think the word “ignorance” is linked to the word “ignore”, as in ignoring something/someone, but it only refers to the state of not knowing something. — Eric Khumalo I was disgusted to discover in my modern French dictionary that they had beaten us to it with that disgusting new word “artisanal”, since they can use artisanal,

artisanale or artisanalaux, according to their tortuous grammar; the latter two versions, of course, aroused my “spell-check”. — Ian Copley We “synergise” so much in business talk. Can someone fly “synergy” to Mars and leave it there forever? — Stephen Nthite How’s this for a shop-window poster? A camping equipment supplier announcing an end-of-season sale: “Now is the winter of our discount tents.” — John Wilkinson In recent years, the Americans (who have done so much damage to English), have gummed together the words any and more. Have you noticed that “anymore” is one word in American novels? Horrors! Gives me the shivers. — Rose Chinery

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