Wordspeak
Five-star confusion
By Anand
IN reply to my ignorance about the meaning of "five-star activists" in last month's "Wordspeak", readers responded in a variety of ways:
These are the rantings of people from the upper middle class, who hold conventions on human rights, environment and other causes dear to their hearts, in five star hotels (hence five-star activists). By implication, they are divorced from the realities of the majority of the Indian people (who cannot go to five star hotels).
George Thomas, Chennai
Most of the readers or even common people understand the phrase. The fact that you do not know of its meaning indicates that you neither mix with people nor meet and try to understand the various views or problems of the people and remaining isolated, give your own egoistic and one-sided views. It means that you are yourself a `five star journalist'...
Gyan Gupta
Mr. Thomas hit the nail on the head. Since I know very few corporate types, I do not — apparently — move in the right circles during my short and infrequent sojourns in India while away from North America. Or, not being "in the loop", to borrow from the jargon of media people assigned to cover the White House, seldom gives me entry to the rarefied sanctum of five star hotels in India. Hence, my unfamiliarity with such adjectival usage of five star.
Indians certainly do not need explaining when it comes to stars meaning a planet or constellation in astrology, and what the stars can foretell. Famous artistic performers and outstanding athletes, those playing leading role in a theatrical or film production are called "stars" worldwide, as are pop music idols, who last for only a brief, shinning moment of doubtful glory. India has plenty of such stars, easily identifiable as they are often described with the super — or mega — prefix. The OED2 says that the term "star" for a lead actor or someone at the top of their field dates to at least 1779. The use in theatre predates the use in other fields.
The age-old practice of awarding or marking with a star for excellence is behind the 20th Century method of using stars for classification purposes. Although it is most commonly used to categorise hotels, it is also employed, especially in Europe, to classify restaurants. The dream of many a French restaurateur is to get three stars in the Michelin restaurant guide. Its rival, the purist Gault Millau awards toques (literally, a close-fitting headgear), and several publications use "knife and fork" symbols for the same purpose. Some producers of alcoholic beverages (most often brandies) also use stars to denote quality. Such categorisation can be creative was proven by a Japanese brandy that I bought which had seven stars on the label. And stars may only be one of the symbols used for classification is seen in girlie magazines such as Hustler that use various tumescent stages of a part of the male anatomy to categorise x-rated productions.
A five-pointed star, the pentagram or pentacle, sometimes has magical and occult associations. This star, or its stylised representation, appears often in medals (for example, the Star of India, a British medal discontinued after 1947), in decorations and on the flags of nations, notably the U.S., where the number of stars represents the number of states in the union. The five-pointed red star still means communism to many. The hexagram, the well-known Hindu symbol of a six-pointed star, is also known as the Star of David or Jewish Star, and can be used to symbolise Israel or Jews. Readers have sent me queries (including about the meanings of the pentacle and the hexagram) about several words in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. A future "Wordspeak" column will exclusively be on that book.
The pentacle is often used as a symbol of rank or merit. In U.S. Army, the designations of generals are informally known as One-star general to Five-star general. A U.S. soldier, the story goes, was so surprised coming face to face unexpectedly with a Five-star general that he blurted, "Holy Moses, the Milky Way!"
Critics and reviewers rate movies on a star system, which, as my travels have shown, can sometimes be misleading as well as unreliable as the hotel rating method. Sometimes a gem of hotel, with excellent food and appointments to match any five star accommodation, is relegated to four-star or even three-star rating because it lacks a swimming pool or an elevator (lift). And vice-versa. A five star hotel generally means luxury and high-prices, and sometimes people do use the label to denote a certain standard and style. Its adjectival usage, as in describing an attitude or a person, will have to become more widespread to be universally acceptable.
E-mail the author at anand@journalist.com.
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