Recently, I was wandering through an article in the prestigious US magazine The New Yorker that dealt in essence with a controversy swirling around the US cable sports network ESPN as to where it sits in the ongoing cultural/racial war that seems to have been substantially generated by the election and subsequent actions of President Donald Trump.

In that article reference was made to a comment by a James Andrew Miller, who the article said “co-wrote the definitive oral history of ESPN”. Initially I did not give this much thought, however on reflection the obvious question arose in my mind – how does one write an “oral history”?

I think I am clear as to what is meant – presumably a written history based on oral information. Nevertheless, I was surprised that this clumsiness escaped the attention of the editors at The New Yorker, a publication renowned for being a stickler when it comes to the rights and wrongs of English expression.

This led me to thinking about other English usages in the US that appear to be widely accepted but which sometimes trouble the ear of other English speakers. Probably my favourite is the term “momentarily”. I recall during an internal airline flight in the US an announcement by the pilot that we would be landing in Chicago “momentarily”.   I turned to the (US) occupant of the next seat and commented that I hoped that we would be in Chicago a little longer that that. This observation was met with obvious puzzlement on my travelling companion’s part.

Maybe the contradiction in terms overlooked by The New Yorker has its roots in sports writing and commentary (a field rich in the mangling of language which has been plowed enthusiastically by many a reviewer). As but a minor example I am a regular viewer of TV coverage of the US golf tour and am frequently informed by the commentator of the composition of “pairings” of competitors only to find that in fact the group comprises three rather than two members.

Then again, in the sporting arena maybe this is not unique to the US. Track events in athletics meetings in Europe more than occasionally are said to be at the semi-final stage, which turn out to involve not two qualifying races for the final but three.

In defence of us all, however, possibly it is wise to bear in mind the view of English attributed to the US journalist and columnist, Doug Larson –
“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers”.