The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English
By Henry Hitchings
2008, Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 440 pages; $29.95
I admit it: the language of law, even today, remains convoluted. Open a commercial contract, for instance, and you’ll see double-barrelled legalese like “keep and maintain,” “goods and chattels,” “will and testament,” and “indemnify and hold harmless.” The two parts of these familiar legal terms mean largely the same thing. So where did these redundancies come from, and why do they survive?
According to Henry Hitchings’s new book, “The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English,” the phenomenon goes a long way back.
In 1066 Duke William of Normandy invaded England and claimed the throne. French became the ruling language of England for the next 300 years, and the law was no exception. During this period legal terminology was refined, and new jargon – words like jury, justice, plea, plaintiff, lease, larceny, and crime - was imported or introduced from French. As English law became more sophisticated, the legal uses of French grew increasingly specialized.
It was not until 1362, when the Statute of Pleading was enacted, that English became the language of Parliament and the law. Although the statute declared that all pleas should be couched in English and promoted the idea that using English in courts would dispel confusion, it stipulated that court records be kept in Latin.
But the closed ranks of the legal profession resisted the latter part of the transition. French remained the language for legal writing and thinking for the next 300 years, with generous help from Latin – words like affidavit and subpoena – which “conveyed an air of precision and authority unavailable to English.” Hitchings concludes, “To this date the language of the law proves prolix, repetitious, archaic and theatrical.”
Mr. Hitchings’s writing is precise yet surprisingly accessible to the average reader. Nonetheless, the discussion of the origins of words grows dense at times, and it takes effort to digest the immense contents under the broad heading of etymology and linguistic history. At the same time, the book is full of pleasant yet surprising nuggets. (For instance, I learned that the word sofa is of Arabic origin, and paper tiger is transplanted from Chinese.) In the end, this book is a pleasantly rewarding read.
