My help was sought by a highschool student last week through his sister who happened to be my officemate asking me to explain the meaning of ‘barbarism, foreignism, and literary coinages’. It was fun because on that precise moment, I was contemplating on what to write in my column for this week and the topic appeared to me to be interesting.
Barbarism is taboo in a civilized society like ours unlike in Maguindanao where the barbaric Ampatuans live. For the benefit of those who are keeping a copy of this paper for future reference, let me elucidate on the subject. Barbarism came from the word barbaruz which literally means backward. It pertains to acts, deeds and exploits or perhaps utterances which run counter to the customary culture and way of life in a civilized society.
It is disgusting that in this modern world where a relative residing on the other side of the globe is just a text away, we can still hear incidents of barbarism committed by what we perceive to be intelligent people. Many celebrated cases dominated the pages of newspaper because the victims were killed in a manner that was repulsive to human senses! And the sad part is the gruesome stories were capitalized by some enterprising producer for their movie outfit!
The story of Lucila Lalu – I think the first chop-chop victim, sent my grandmother to the bathroom nauseating. Years after came the Elsa Castillo story, then Myrna Diones, and so forth. And so our lawmakers classified this kind of crimes as heinous punishable by death. In the native parlance, karumaldumal. What other word could better describe such crimes? And as far as I am concerned, all heinous crimes are barbaric! Sadly, death penalty had been abolished.
Now let’s go to foreignism. According to the book on the subject that I read, it comprises of words and acts that are unique and distinctive in a particular country, and are oftentimes adopted by residents of another country perhaps for convenience or some other reason. Some of the many foreign words and phrase that we commonly use are: bonafide; Sayonara; charge de’affaire; que barbaridad, assalam’alaikum, etc.
I see nothing wrong with using foreign words but doing foreign acts not acceptable in our society must be proscribed. What are these acts? Sniffing opium in China may be legal; Walking in skimpy apparel may be “in” in Paris; Maintaining ‘harem’ may be right in Brunei, but definitely not in the Philippines.
What about literary coinages? Well, these are words and phrases invented by journalist and writers to best explain their ideas especially when there are no words available in the dictionary. The term “imeldific”- from the name of former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos was invented to describe a person penchant for shoes while the word “tysonic”- from the name of boxing champion Mike Tyson who bit the ears of his opponent Ivander Holyfied, was coined to describe a person’s bite.
Sometimes, literary coinages come from utterances of public figures and dignitaries like the famous line uttered by Sec. Romulo Neri during the height of the NBN-ZTE scandal. Remember the phrase “modify your greed”? What about the phrase “lucky bitch” uttered by Governor Salceda alluding to PGMA?
There are so many words and phrases that would be encountered by our students and the best way for them to be informed is to read newspapers everyday. Good reading habit is a must for added knowledge.
Laguna Courier
Barbarism is taboo in a civilized society like ours unlike in Maguindanao where the barbaric Ampatuans live. For the benefit of those who are keeping a copy of this paper for future reference, let me elucidate on the subject. Barbarism came from the word barbaruz which literally means backward. It pertains to acts, deeds and exploits or perhaps utterances which run counter to the customary culture and way of life in a civilized society.
It is disgusting that in this modern world where a relative residing on the other side of the globe is just a text away, we can still hear incidents of barbarism committed by what we perceive to be intelligent people. Many celebrated cases dominated the pages of newspaper because the victims were killed in a manner that was repulsive to human senses! And the sad part is the gruesome stories were capitalized by some enterprising producer for their movie outfit!
The story of Lucila Lalu – I think the first chop-chop victim, sent my grandmother to the bathroom nauseating. Years after came the Elsa Castillo story, then Myrna Diones, and so forth. And so our lawmakers classified this kind of crimes as heinous punishable by death. In the native parlance, karumaldumal. What other word could better describe such crimes? And as far as I am concerned, all heinous crimes are barbaric! Sadly, death penalty had been abolished.
Now let’s go to foreignism. According to the book on the subject that I read, it comprises of words and acts that are unique and distinctive in a particular country, and are oftentimes adopted by residents of another country perhaps for convenience or some other reason. Some of the many foreign words and phrase that we commonly use are: bonafide; Sayonara; charge de’affaire; que barbaridad, assalam’alaikum, etc.
I see nothing wrong with using foreign words but doing foreign acts not acceptable in our society must be proscribed. What are these acts? Sniffing opium in China may be legal; Walking in skimpy apparel may be “in” in Paris; Maintaining ‘harem’ may be right in Brunei, but definitely not in the Philippines.
What about literary coinages? Well, these are words and phrases invented by journalist and writers to best explain their ideas especially when there are no words available in the dictionary. The term “imeldific”- from the name of former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos was invented to describe a person penchant for shoes while the word “tysonic”- from the name of boxing champion Mike Tyson who bit the ears of his opponent Ivander Holyfied, was coined to describe a person’s bite.
Sometimes, literary coinages come from utterances of public figures and dignitaries like the famous line uttered by Sec. Romulo Neri during the height of the NBN-ZTE scandal. Remember the phrase “modify your greed”? What about the phrase “lucky bitch” uttered by Governor Salceda alluding to PGMA?
There are so many words and phrases that would be encountered by our students and the best way for them to be informed is to read newspapers everyday. Good reading habit is a must for added knowledge.
Laguna Courier
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