Mea Culpa: hurling darkness, and other curious expressions of obscure origin

Questions of usage, grammar and etymology in this week’s Independent

Jane Austen is still very much with us... in banknote form

Andrea Leadsom was unfairly mocked this week for a slip of the tongue when, speaking in the House of Commons, she described Jane Austen as “one of our greatest living authors”. She immediately corrected herself, “greatest ever authors,” but the caravan of mockery had already set off.

It is not as if she has never said anything that is genuinely controversial or foolish, depending on one’s point of view, but I suppose the derision this time was a bit of harmless fun. One of our reports of it raised a question of usage that puzzled a reader: “Waterstones throw shade as Andrea Leadsom accidentally calls Jane Austen ‘one of our greatest living authors’.” David McDougall wrote to ask what throwing shade meant.

I thought it meant to insult indirectly and, having investigated, can report that this is broadly right. It originated in the LGBT drag ball culture of 1980s Harlem. To read is to insult someone imaginatively; to throw shade is to “curve the pitch”, slightly concealing the insult. Which is what Waterstones the bookshop did when it announced: “We are currently moving all our Jane Austen stock from Classics into Greatest Living Authors.”

There was one thing wrong with our headline, however, which has been corrected. Waterstones is a company and is therefore singular in The Independent’s house style. Despite the “we” of its announcement, the headline now reads: “Waterstones throws shade…”

Marine etymology: Another reader took issue with a recipe for turmeric chicken thigh kebab last week. Lynne Ladd did not say whether she had tried it, but objected that we had used “marinade” when she would have had “marinate”. She said: “A marinade is the mixture. To marinate is the verb for getting that chicken so tasty! You marinate something in a marinade.”

The Oxford Dictionary says that both words come from Spanish marinar or Italian marinare, “pickle in brine”, from Latin marinus, from mare “sea”.

The Dictionary also says “marinade” is “another term for marinate”, so I don’t think it is wrong, exactly, and the difference is arbitrary, but we should have a consistent style. So we should marinate things in marinades.

Likely Americanisms: We reported last week that George Freeman, the Conservative MP who heads the No 10 policy board, warned that Jeremy Corbyn is now a serious threat to the Prime Minister, and we noted: “Most opinion polls released since the general election have shown Labour ahead of the Tories – which would likely make them the largest party in the Commons in the event of another election.”

In British English, we usually say, and write, “probably” rather than “likely”.

Mea maxima culpa: Last weekend I wrote about the Labour manifesto, saying the party “will not be able to hold onto its votes” unless it is more rigorous about policy. This was, as Rich Greenhill pointed out, quite wrong. By which of course I mean that it is common in US English but is not The Independent’s style. I changed it to “on to”.