Words, Words, Words : How Words Tell Us About Ourselves And Our World

Sanjeev Kumar Nath

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

— Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii

Words have births, life, and death…and sometimes even rebirth!

The word “snollygoster” is an example of a word that “died” and is alive again.

১৯৩৫: অসম সাহিত্য সভাৰ বাৰ্ষিক সন্মিলনৰ অভ্যৰ্থনা সমিতিৰ সভাপতিৰ অভিভাষণ, তেজপুৰ

January 23, 2025

আহোম‌ ৰাজতন্ত্ৰত পশ্চিম অসমৰ চৌধুৰী-তন্ত্ৰ

January 22, 2025

স্মাৰ্টফোন, সামাজিক মাধ্যম আৰু শৈশৱৰ ‘ছন্দপতন ৰিষ্ট’?

January 19, 2025

A snollygoster is an unprincipled but shrewd person, and the word was used in America to refer to cunning politicians who didn’t give a fig about morality or ethics when it came to their desire to get elected. In the 1800s, it was used frequently to refer to unscrupulous, unprincipled politicians. By the 1850s, the word was used quite regularly in the American South, and it always involved a derogatory reference to a politician.

However, after the 1850s, the word gradually went out of use. Then, more than a century later, the word came to be used again. William Safire, the New York Times columnist started using the word in his “On Language” column from 1980.

Within some two decades after that, “snollygoster” began to be used quite regularly again, so that the word, which had been removed from American dictionaries because it was not in regular use, was returned to dictionaries again. Why did this word have such a rebirth?

“While lickspittles abound across the world, they are particularly abundant in India, may be most of all in Assam. Lickspittles abound in particular fields more than in other fields. Thus, politics is full of lickspittles; journalism, especially electronic journalism is full of them, and surprisingly, so many of our intellectuals, especially the upward-climbing, uppity ones are first-rate lickspittles.”

What is so special about it that it got a second chance at life while many words that get out of use simply die and are never revived? Is it because the people whom “snollygoster” refers to—the shrewd, opportunist, unprincipled politicians—are here again in large numbers? Not just in America, but here, in our ‘mother of democracy‘, too?

Somewhat similar to “snollygoster”, but with a more graphic sort of character, is the word “lickspittle”. The other day, reading a novel by a contemporary African writer, I came across the observation of a British woman character who said that the people of a certain tribe in Nigeria were first-rate lickspittles. Of course, this had nothing to do with the character of that tribe. It was merely the novelist’s technique of exposing the prejudices and presumptions of Europeans about Africans.

However, this set me thinking, and the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if humanity cannot in fact be divided into two: lickspittles, and those that are not lickspittles. The word itself is interesting: the lickspittle can do anything to please those in power and those that can give him also some taste of power. He can even lick their spittle.

Readers who may have some memory of spending their childhood in rural Assam may have noticed a strange practice: An elder close relative, such as a parent or a grandparent, would sometimes chew and chew beetle nut and then, when the chewing is almost finished, bring out a little of the stuff from their mouth and put it into the waiting mouth of a child. This, of course, is a show of extraordinary love, not ‘lickspittling’!

“Also, it is no longer a secret today that many media houses are big lickspittles. If you are an honest journalist, wishing to expose the corrupt and the guilty, and thereby make a difference for the better in society, you would not be able to survive in those media houses.”

While lickspittles abound across the world, they are particularly abundant in India, may be most of all in Assam. Lickspittles abound in particular fields more than in other fields. Thus, politics is full of lickspittles; journalism, especially electronic journalism is full of them, and surprisingly, so many of our intellectuals, especially the upward-climbing, uppity ones are first-rate lickspittles.

To be fair to the hordes of lickspittles that are with us, it must be conceded that licking spittle (if I can break up and play with the word a bit) is almost a professional hazard in certain professions. If you are in such a profession, you have to do it. Or one does not absolutely have to do it, but if one does it, then one’s prospects soar easily and quickly.

Look at the field of politics in India today. Lickspittles have eaten up a grand old party like termites eat up old, wooden furniture. Years of servile obedience to just one family has made even senior leaders of that party incapable of thinking of any alternative to the reign of the family. They do not realize that it is their blind servility that has weakened the party so much that now it is possible that it will never again regain any of its past glory.

However, if lickspittles do well in party C, they do well in party B, too. Thus, those whose opportunity sensing mechanism functions especially well, take no time in switching allegiance. Opportunity-sensing and licking spittle, by the way, are often one and the same thing in politics. The smart lickspittle licks the spittle of those who can confer him the best benefits.

Thus, there is a philosophy in it; it is not blind allegiance to one person or to one party; it is actually complete allegiance only to one’s own selfish interests. If one’s interests call for a change of allegiance, so be it. More intense, more devoted licking of spittle in the new party, if need be.

Also, it is no longer a secret today that many media houses are big lickspittles. If you are an honest journalist, wishing to expose the corrupt and the guilty, and thereby make a difference for the better in society, you would not be able to survive in those media houses.

Hence, those who mean to reach great heights and be considered celebrities by the people, learn early to appease their bosses, the financiers of the media houses who, of course, are almost always connected to one or the other political party, or are simply with the ruling party, whatever that is. This means that their capacity to change allegiance is lightening quick.

Then there are the really low ones:

“One of the low on whom assurance sits

As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire” (The Waste Land, T S Eliot)

These are the ones who negotiate for benefits in lieu of not publishing or not broadcasting the damaging stories of corrupt officials or legislators. They talk fluently about the greatness of the fourth pillar of democracy, but are on the lookout for government “incentives”, and are always thinking, when working on a good story: “What is there in it for me? What can be there in it for me, if…?”

There are words that speak volumes about certain leaders. A plaster saint is a person who tries to project an image of himself or herself as morally perfect, without any weaknesses or flaws in character.

I’m sure you will not find it difficult to recognize the plaster saints that smile at you from the large posters or hoardings installed at strategic points in your city. Sometimes they will just be smiling at you, trying to hide all the volcanic personal ambitions and terrible hypocrisy inside and look as innocent and cute as possible, or sometimes you may see them greeting the multitudes brought to rallies in long-distance buses.

And then there is the word “braggadocio”. Braggadocio is the air of brash, arrogant self-confidence with which, for instance, elected representatives in the government or big bureaucrats carry themselves. One interesting fact about this quality (if I may call it a quality) seen in “big” people is that the less knowledgeable the person holding high office is, the more like he is to flaunt his self-importance.

Ordinarily, we expect a mason to have knowledge of masonry, a carpenter to have knowledge of carpentry, and so on, but it seems no such expertise is required to run a country. Still, occasionally we hear a particular leader being praised for his political acumen or for his statesmanship, for example, but that doesn’t mean that he has got a university degree on political acumen or statesmanship.

By observing his actions, people say that he has such and such qualities. The ones who burst with self-importance, however, almost never have any such qualities. Thus, braggadocio and stupidity seem to go together.

Another interesting word is “amnesia”. Commonly, this is understood as forgetfulness, but what is discussed here is a condition endemic among high-profile and high-flying politicians. Once a politician changes allegiance he immediately forgets what he had said and done in the erstwhile party, and his new bosses also forget and forgive, especially when they see that the turncoat has great potential.

Even crimes are forgotten. It is up to the observer to decide whether all this is can be taken as evidence of true generosity of heart or merely a relationship of convenience.

Then there is something even more startling than amnesia. Right when the people are taking to the streets, protesting something unacceptable to them, for example, there will be these great leaders who will say, “Protests? What protests? I haven’t seen any.”

I couldn’t think of a word to describe this rare phenomenon of someone not seeing something that is everywhere. How to explain this phenomenon?

But then I stumbled on a word that made me think, although I cannot say that it helped me understand the mystery of someone not seeing something that is right in front of his eyes. The word is blindsimming. It refers to a person who is not blind, but prefers to be so. It’s a rare disorder, and may perhaps be understood in terms of what is technically called Body Integrity Identity Disorder.

But that’s about what can happen to an individual, not a group of people or a government. Or does blindsimming really affect individuals only?

Back to the word “lickspittle”. It is usually easy to notice politicians who are lickspittles; they do not even care to hide their tendency for licking spittle, but it can be quite difficult to know if an intellectual is a lickspittle, because, being intellectuals, they are very good in disguise. However, no disguise can completely hide a lickspittle.

If you see a firebrand intellectual suddenly lose all his heat and become a mild housecat owned by those in power, be in no doubt that he is a big lickspittle. Whatever reputation of scholarship and knowledge he has, he is no better than the spittle-licking politician.

If you have listened to an intellectual pompously offering his valuable views in a TV talk show, but for the life of you, you cannot decide whether he is talking against the ruling party or for it, you have my man right in front of you: the intellectual lickspittle!

They are the ones used by politicians to further their prospects. And like all scholars, these intellectuals also have their followers and devotees. Worshipers of such scholars often do not even know that they are in fact being groomed to strengthen the ideology of a specific political party.

However, sometimes an intellectual speaks in ambiguous terms not because he is a confirmed lickspittle, but because he feels that his scholarship calls for only round-about, circumlocutory assertions, and not for providing any clarity of opinion. (In non-intellectual, ordinary parlance, such people are called muddle-headed fools). He seems harmless, but is not, because the multitudes that drink in his words, end up being muddleheaded like him. (And the more muddleheaded the people, the better it is for the political sharks and piranhas to fool them).

About such intellectuals, there is a story:

Once a devil, a devoted worker of Satan, was moving around on earth when he saw a great enlightened mahatma, giving discourses on spirituality to a huge group of people. The poor devil went to his master, Satan, and reported, “Lord, do you know that there is a mahatma giving wonderful discourses to the multitudes? His lectures and discourses will impart knowledge and spirituality to all these people. Now our business will be in jeopardy. We won’t get a single soul in hell.”

Satan did not seem too disturbed. He said, “Don’t worry. I have made arrangements. Just relax.”

Then, after some days, this devil goes around the earth again, and sees that mahatma discoursing to an even bigger multitude. He also notices many intellectuals sitting near the mahatma, and these scholars had their own devotees and disciples.

The devil rushes back to his master and complains, “What arrangements have you made? So many people are thronging to that mahatma!”

Satan smiled and said, “Did you see those people sitting very close to the mahatma: very scholarly people, intellectuals, all of them?”

“Yes,” said the devil.

“They are my people,” Satan said, “They will make the simple truth so complicated with their verbose explanations, that their disciples will always remain confused, and will never be able to realize the Truth.”

(Sanjeev Kumar Nath, English Department, Gauhati University, sanjeevnath21@gmail.com)

[Images from different sources]

Mahabahu.com is an Online Magazine with collection of premium Assamese and English articles and posts with cultural base and modern thinking. You can send your articles to editor@mahabahu.com / editor@mahabahoo.com ( For Assamese article, Unicode font is necessary)