Nouns

Why is it “swine flu” and not “pig flu”?

Nouns

Swine flu has been in the news a lot recently.

This has made me ask three questions: 1. What exactly does “swine” mean? 2. How is “swine” related to “pig”? 3. Why is this flu called “swine flu” and not “pig flu”?

Dictionary.com says that the noun “swine” means any stout, cloven-hoofed artiodactyl of the Old World family Suidae, having a thick hide sparsely covered with coarse hair, a disklike snout, and an often short, tasseled tail: now of worldwide distribution and hunted or raised for its meat and other products..

And Dictionary.com says that the first three meanings of the noun “pig” are (a) a young swine of either sex, esp. a domestic hog, Sus scrofa, weighing less than 120 lb. (220 kg.), (b) any wild or domestic swine, and (c) the flesh of swine; pork.

So swine flu just as easily could be called “pig flu” instead. However, given the third definition of the noun “pig”, and given the claim that this flu does not come from eating pork, it makes more sense to call this “swine flu” than to call it “pig flu”.

“perquisite” vs. “prerequisite”

Nouns, Versus

I sometimes see or hear these nouns used interchangeably.

Problem:
The nouns “perquisite” and “prerequisite” are not synonyms.

Explanation:
The noun “perquisite” — spelled P-E-R-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E — dates back to the early 1400s and refers to an incidental privilege or payment beyond regular salary or wages.

Many readers may know the informal noun “perk” — spelled P-E-R-K — which was coined in the 1800s as a shortened form of “perquisite”.

The origin of the noun “perquisite” is the Latin word “perquisitus”, which is the participle of the Latin verb “perquirere”, which means to inquire diligently.

This origin makes sense when one knows that the tertiary meaning of “perquisite” is something demanded as a particular privilege, as in “It was a perquisite of royalty.”

In other words, the noun “perquisite” began as a reference to something demanded by royalty, and it evolved to mean something extra given to employees.

The noun “prerequisite” — spelled P-R-E-Q-U-I-S-I-T-E — dates back to the early 1600s and means something prerequisite.

So one then must turn to the meaning of the adjective “prerequisite”, which is required beforehand, with “required” coming from the “requisite” part of “prerequisite” and with “beforehand” coming from the “pre” part of “prerequisite”.

Solution:
Think of the informal noun “perk” to remember the meaning of the noun “perquisite”; think of the parts of the noun “prerequisite” to remember its meaning.

“I want to preface this up front by saying …”

Nouns, Redundancies, Verbs

I heard this yesterday during a conference call.

Problem:
The phrase “up front” introduces a redundancy.

Explanation:
The speaker on the conference call was telling the other call attendees that he wanted to say something before he said something else.

The noun “preface” means a preliminary statement in a book or speech.

So the verb “preface” means to provide a preliminary statement.

And therefore following the verb “preface” with the phrase “up front” introduces a redundancy.

Solution:
“I want to preface this by saying …”