WORDSPEAK
Admission of guilt?
BY ANAND
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Looking into the etymology of peccadilloes.
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The story based on an attempted pun on “I have Sind’ is probably apocryphal
IN the context of the brouhaha over Hollywood publicly kissing Bollywood, a Times of India editorial said last month: … Is (Richard) Gere being penitent? Is he atoning for his peccadillo or is he merely trying to put an end t
o it all by mouthing an apology that he doesn’t really mean?
While Indians decide whether or not to dismiss what Gere did as a mere peccadillo, the editorial writer’s use of the word brought to my mind a story connected with its etymology.
Origin
Peccadillo, a small sin or fault or not a very bad action, from Spanish pecadillo, diminutive of pecado, sin, which is a past participle of Latin verb ‘peccre’, to sin. Also the source of peccable (adj.), liable to sin or error, hence the antonym, impeccable, which has come to mean perfect, without mistakes or faults . Two seldom-seen derivates are peccant (sinful, guilty), and peccancy (a wicked act or wicked behaviour). And peccavi (noun), admission of sin or guilt as in ‘I have sinned’.
Peccavi constituted the one-word telegram that Sir Charles Napier, a British general in India, is said to have sent in 1843 after his military victory and conquest of Sind, as the province of Sindh in Pakistan was then called. The story based on an attempted pun on “I have Sind’ is probably apocryphal, as many legends from British India are. The general (as some historians claim) was under explicit instructions not to attack Hyderabad, and if provoked to fighting, not to capture Sindh’s capital. If it’s not, there’s good reason to take umbrage at his imperialistic arrogance, for Napier’s action meant death for some just because the general could show off a typical Victorian trait, his classical training.
Or, as a learned friend of mine pointed out, maybe Napier was being penitent for disobeying his orders. Readers might choose to believe either, for — to quote Mason Williams — “Who needs truth, if truth is dull.”
A similar story about Lord Dalhousie, another Victorian and a contemporary of Napier, is based on a slightly more complicated homophonic reference. Dalhousie was a key figure in the consolidation of British power in India before it became a part of the Empire. The Indian rulers had to enter into alliances with the British in return for various concessions, including the right to keep a British resident and a military force within their states. It was customary for a ruler without a natural heir to ask the British government whether he could adopt a son to succeed him.
Dalhousie refused this permission so that he could annexe Satara, Jhansi and Nagpur. In case of Oudh, as Avadh (now a part of U.P.) was then spelled, there was no question of lack of heirs, so the nawab was simply accused of misgovernment, and the state was annexed against his will.
Someone, with a sense of humour, reportedly said that perhaps Oudh was annexed because Dalhousie wanted to be able to write ‘Vovi’ – I’ve Oudh (vovi is Latin for ‘I vowed’).
Does this not put the demand to revert to old and/or authentic Indian names in a new light?
Those unfamiliar with India’s history perhaps would remember peccavi only from The Mephisto Club, a thriller by Tess Gerritsen, in which a pair of women detectives investigating a particularly gruesome murder find severed limbs, black candles and just one word ‘peccavi’ scrawled in blood on the wall of the victim’s apartment in Boston
Naming Piccadilly
Did Piccadilly Circus in London, England, the neighbourhood near Hyde Park and to the south of Mayfair, get its name because it was seen as a place for committing, ahem, certain peccadilloes?
Since the question was once asked in all seriousness, it merits explanation: The name Piccadilly arises from a tailor named Robert Baker, who owned a shop on the Strand, in the late 16th century and early 17th century. He amassed a large fortune by making and selling piccadills (also called picadils — stiff collars with scalloped edges and a broad lace or perforated border), that were then in fashion. With his great fortune he purchased a large tract of what was then open country to the west of London, and in about 1612 he built a large house there. The mansion soon became known as Piccadilly Hall.
E-mail: anand@journalist.com (Please put “Wordspeak” in the subject box)
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