Word To The Wise

Looking Glass World

US President Barack Obama will no doubt be hoping for a better press after hosting his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao this week than he did during his own visit to Beijing back in November 2009. Then, he found himself criticised in some quarters for kowtowing to the Chinese authorities. The breaking of bread this evening at a White House private dinner and then again later in the week at a fully blown state banquet by the leaders of the old and new superpowers will no doubt be governed by a heavy doss of realpolitik despite each country's simmering discontent with the other. The Americans may not be delighted at China's human rights record, nor pleased with the valuation of the Chinese currency the yuan, which they see as artificially low, while for their part the Beijing contingent come displeased over US arms sales to Taiwan and unhappy at America's public welcome to the Dalai Lama to its shores. Yet, each needs the other and honeyed words will be publicly exchanged. What is uttered and what is meant of course are two different things as Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty observed when he asserted that 'when I use a word it means what I choose it to mean'. Nuance of meaning in diplomacy is of particular importance as none of the apparatchiks at work this week in Washington will need reminding. Interestingly, the English language that President Obama uses is famously a dab hand at incorporating foreign influences in the shape of words from other tongues and putting them to its own use. Take kowtow, realpolitik, nuance and apparatchiks as used above, which have their origins in Chinese, German, French and Russian respectively. Gazing into the uncertainties of the future it is a fair bet that English will be acquiring more Chinese words given the old adage that one definition of the difference between a dialect and a language is that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Inspired by this dose of etymology, today's Highly Questionable? quiz takes the form of an exploration of which other language has given English a number of words.       

Words Quiz
The following words commonly used in English have been absorbed from which other languages?
1 Guru?
2 Assassin?
3 Tycoon?
4 Fiasco?
5 Alligator?
Answers to our words themed quiz will be published on tomorrow's blog.
The author of the Highly Questionable? quiz and trivia blog, Harry Reid, is a freelance question setter, writer and blogger. He can be contacted at harryreid@btinternet.com.