SIR: Is "ain't" a proper word? I am asking this because I once heard a person say that ain't is the contraction of am not. I also heard someone else say ain't is not a proper word. Who is right? - Megan M.
ANSWER: That depends on who answers, Megan, and also on what you mean by proper. Perhaps H.W. Fowler's "Modern English Usage" handles the question best. As used for isn't, says Fowler, ain't or an't "is an uneducated blunder and serves no useful purpose." But, he adds, "it is a pity that a 't for am not should shock us," because it's a natural contraction and supplies a real want.So we are left with no abbreviation for "am I not?" And many, in desperation, say "aren't I," which is enough to set any American's teeth on edge though it gets passing marks in England. I suppose, then, that your answer is: Ain't isn't yet considered proper, though it probably will be in time. Meanwhile, we struggle along with an inadequate vocabulary because people are so doggone prejudiced. Ain't that a shame?
SIR: During the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, an analyst on CNN said one of the principals had "a tough road to hoe." Can that be correct? - Puzzled.
ANSWER: No, it can't. Do you know anyone who ever, ever saw somebody hoeing a tough road? A concrete road, perhaps? And what kind of hoe was being used, for pete's sake?
But that expression keeps turning up, now that we have changed - at least on television - from an agrarian society to an urban society. Thousands, maybe millions, of Americans have no idea about farming, and can't even picture a row that needs cultivating, and how difficult it is to hoe that row when it gets hard. Your analyst may know a lot about the law, but he or she doesn't know beans about tough rows that need hoeing.
SIR: The magazine section of my Sunday newspaper recently had a column that spoke of people slumping "comfily" at cafe tables. Never having seen that word before, I checked three dictionaries and did not find it, though one dictionary did list "comfy." Is it possible the writer coined this word instead of using "comfortably"? Or is there such a word in print somewhere? - Mildred B.
ANSWER: Maybe there's such a word in print somewhere, or maybe there isn't. Maybe the writer coined it, or maybe he didn't. The point is, what difference does it make? People coin words all the time, which doesn't necessarily make them bad, and all sorts of words turn up in print somewhere, which doesn't necessarily make them good.
Personally, I'm put off by "comfily" because it sounds so cute and cuddly, but that may be just because I'm crotchety. But there's no law against cute words in dictionaries, and there's no law against someone inventing them. If it repels you sufficiently, quit reading the piece, or even quit reading the writer at all. But don't take away his right to be repulsive. Remember the Bill of Rights.
MYSTERIOUS FALL of the week, noted and reported by Leslie B.:
"My newspaper told me about conditions in Berlin `since Communism has fallen from disfavor.' Amazing isn't it?"
Send questions, comments, and good and bad examples to Lydel Sims, Watch Your Language, 366 S. Highland, Apt. 410, Memphis, Tenn. 38111. If you quote a book, please give author, title and page number. Sorry, but questions can be answered only through this column.
(Lydel Sims of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis writes this column weekly.)