READERS’ WORDS

I enjoyed your use of “platypus” as I have evolved some expletives myself, with the object of not actually swearing. As I am a rep, I spend a lot of time in my car, so this is necessary. My expletive here, and humble apologies to the Argentine composer, is “Astor Piazzolla!” It enables one to express annoyance. If he were still alive, I think it would amuse him. — Mary May Wellbeloved An SABC announcer recently referred to somebody who had defected from a political party as a “defectee”. If I vote in the election, will I become a “votee”? — John Webb A very business-like business consultant, interviewed on national radio, used (coined?) the word “organisationalise”. I cannot find it on any internet dictionary, and hope never to hear it again. — Alan

Campbell Re “Doxy obambulates with bravo” (March 23): Wouldn’t it be nice if English still had words like accoucheur, ambuscade, appanage, battledore, chines, chits, dolorifuge, exordium, fantods, farthingale, hebdomadal, jorum, necromancy, pannikins, rimy, spondulicks, timbrel and wherry? — Neville Barber I saw an advertisement for flu medicine that said: “Winter’s coming, button down the hatches.” I knew it was supposed to be “batten” but I didn’t know why, so I looked it up. A batten is a strip of wood used to nail things down on ships in storms. I believe that the baton passed in athletics relays is almost the same thing. I still like the thought of hatches with buttons that can be fastened, maybe it’s not so wrong. — Andile Mashila