Mea Culpa: Dancing to wrap music and making hay in the day

John Rentoul on questions of style and usage in last week’s Independent

Eddie Jones, England’s rugby union head coach, was wrongly accused of eating a different kind of sandwich (Getty)

We confused several words that sound the same but are spelt differently last week. In a report on the rugby we said that Eddie Jones, England’s head coach, was “risking a wrap on the knuckles”. Thanks to Iain Boyd for pointing out this unusual way of eating flatbread. That has been changed to “rap”.

In a letter to the editor, a reader praised supermarkets for “stepping into the breech”, doing the government’s job by looking after the less fortunate. As Mick O’Hare pointed out, this should have been “breach”.

A breech is a buttock, or the hind part of something, and was originally a plural of broc in Old English, but became singular, giving rise to breeches, a double plural meaning a garment covering buttocks and thighs.

Breach, on the other hand, is another word for break, to which it is related. “Once more unto the breach” means “let us charge again into the break in the line of defence”.

Finally, we invited the reader, in an article about Formula One, to “think back to McLaren’s hay day”. A reader wondered if the confusion arose from “making hay while the sun shines”. The usual form is “heyday”, all one word, meaning a period of greatest success. From an exclamation of joy or surprise, it came in the 16th century to mean cheerfulness, and then, because of the “day”, a time in which such cheerfulness reigned.

Sick-making Americanism: In a comment article suggesting that Donald Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak had in effect handed the presidency to Joe Biden, we used an Americanism that surprised a reader. The article mentioned “the virus which has sickened people in almost every state”.

Our reader was right to point out that in British English we would say “afflicted”, and the use of “sicken” to mean “make sick” is only ever used in a metaphorical sense, as in “President Trump’s behaviour has sickened people”.

On the other hand, I feel sure that this use of sicken was normal in older British English, and suspect that it should be added to my list of good British words that we exported to the new world, and which then died out here, such as “gotten”. There is no harm in reviving them.