Mea Culpa: the strange tale of Donald Trump and the Chinese dumplings

John Rentoul reviews the use and abuse of the English language in The Independent over the past week

Penny Mordaunt definitely did not ‘wield’ the sword around the King at his coronation (Getty)

In our report of the decision of a US court against Donald Trump and in favour of E Jean Carroll, his accuser, we reported that the former president had been found “liable for wonton disregard, for which Ms Carroll was awarded $20,000”. I don’t know if the writer’s subconscious made a connection between Mr Trump and a Chinese dumpling, but we meant “wanton”, as in careless.

From the Old English meaning “badly trained”, it is a rare word, surviving in a few legal contexts and some romantic literature, so it is not surprising that people can be thrown by its spelling.

The power of sight: One foible of journalese, that special dialect of English, is the ability of inanimate objects and abstract nouns to see things. We had a good example of it in our report that British retailers feared empty supermarket shelves when the next lot of post-Brexit customs checks are imposed: “The warning comes after severe shortages of tomatoes, peppers and other salad vegetables earlier this year saw Britain’s major supermarkets forced to restrict sales.”