The Comeback of Amongst?
Too much Rite I, perhaps, along with my late-in-life discovery of the King James Version, has made me a writer who finds it natural to speak of things being amongst other things. I’ve had copy editors who change it, without asking, to “among”; they will say it’s the publisher’s house style. But to me, the words are different. They feel different: “among” seems more ordinary or accidental. “Among the many things on her dresser was a five-dollar bill.” But “amongst” suggests a real connection: “When he was amongst his brothers, he always felt inferior.”
I read a column by Bryan Garner, author of Garner’s Modern English Usage, a book now in its fifth edition. Garner was reviewing a book by Anne Curzan, the title of which is Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares about Words. The “funner” puts me off, as I hope it puts off you, dear reader. Garner went on to list ten points on which Curzan disagrees with him, one of them being “fun” and “funner.” My sympathies were pro-Garner. But then things got interesting.
Garner: “I call amongst a pretentious archaism in American English—primarily a Briticism.”
Curzan: To the contrary, you should “keep your eye on this resurrected word” because “it may have reenergized legs.”
Hey! Once again I find I just might be on the cutting edge. A resurrected word! With legs! Take that, you stodgy modern style guides!
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The word “legs” also caught my ear. It was at a clergy lunch that the late rector emeritus of Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue picked up his wine glass, containing a fine red from France, slowly turned it around at an angle, and pronounced it a good wine. “It has legs,” he said.
I never knew wine might have legs. Now I read that a word (a "resurrected word"!) can have legs. And it is a word I like to use. What will next have legs?
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Meanwhile we can return to Galilee. He lived amongst us, a teacher walking from place to place as he drew his disciples close, tying them to one another with bonds eternal. That, to be sure, was the event of all events to have legs.
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Out & About: I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, on Sunday, Sept. 29. The Eucharists are at 9 and 11:15 a.m.
The next Sunday, I will be teaching a class at St. Martin’s Church in Houston, at 10:15 a.m. My topic is “Everything Happens for a Reason”—something Jesus never said! (Nor do I.) If you live in Houston, it would be great to see you.
Book seminar October 13: At St. Matthew’s in Dallas, we’ll discuss Russell Kirk’s Gothic novel, Old House of Fear. The title refers to a castle on a purportedly haunted Scottish island. Anyone who reads the book is welcome to join; we meet from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
I will teach Christian Ethics at the Stanton Institute, a five-session course meeting on one Saturday each month from January through May, starting Jan. 18, from 1 to 4 p.m. at St. Matthew’s, Dallas. I teach the course around basic human questions, such as “What’s Christian about Christian ethics?” (Would you take a course in “Christian Physics”? What’s the difference?) For more info or to register contact Erica Lasenyik:
