Sir: I've been arguing with myself for some time about two words, "piddle" and "dawdle." My friends say they mean the same and my dictionary uses one to define the other. But it seems to me that "piddle" has an involuntary quality about it while "dawdle" has a deliberate quality.
When my children dawdled, I felt they didn't want to meet a deadline I had set. I live in a retirement center and I think many of us piddle away the day.It's not a monumental question and I don't know why it's important enough to me to waste a 29-cent stamp on. Maybe it's your opinion that makes it important.
- Mabel Colvin.
Answer: Bless you! Of course it's important if it has made you argue with yourself.
I'm dissatisfied, too, with whatmy dictionary tells me; it suggests the words mean about the same and both are related to diddle, so we have diddle, piddle and dawdle, and precious little guidance.
Let's just change all that, friends. From now on, piddling is involuntary and dawdling is deliberate, under terms of the Colvin Principle. Know anybody else who has given so much intelligent attention to the problem?
Sir: In a recent column you used the phrase "nape of the neck." My dictionary defines nape as "back of neck." Is it pretentious, or proper, to say or write "nape" alone?
- Marc S.
Answer: Thanks for not charging me with redundancy, which you might have felt, but "nape" alone can mean various things, including a tablecloth and a yellow turnip, and the Oxford English Dictionary has a lengthy paragraph illustrating the use of the phrase "nape of the neck." As for using the word alone, that should be unpretentious and proper enough so long as it's clear you aren't talking about linens or vegetables.
Horrified note of the week, sounded by Carol P.:
"My newspaper described, but did not show, a photo of Pia Zadora in a baseball uniform with a grin on her face and `the arms of her manager, Tino Barzie, around her waste.' I wouldn't even want to speculate on what that picture looked like!"
Send questions, comments, and good and bad examples to Lydel Sims, Watch Your Language, 366 S. Highland, Apt. 410, Memphis, TN 38111. If you quote a book, please give author, title and page number. Sorry, but questions can be answered only through this column.