A Pittsburgh man is bothered by people who would say someone wrote an outraged letter. Can a letter really be angry and indignant or is it really the writer who’s upset? Martha answers his question and seizes the opportunity to talk about the four-syllable word, hypallage. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “An Outraged Letter”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Oh, hi. This is Tom McClure from Pittsburgh.
Well, hello, Tom. What’s going on?
Hi, how are you guys? I’m doing fine.
Super duper. What’s going on in Pittsburgh?
I noticed some things in print in some newspapers. People writing an outraged letter as opposed to a letter of outrage. And I’ve noticed that this has gone into print a few times by respected newspapers, and it sounds a little off to me because I don’t see how a letter can be outraged itself. You know what I mean?
Like the letters screaming and turning red in the face and waving its arms?
Yeah, I imagine this visual, and it just wasn’t working for me in an amusing way.
Yeah, well, Tom, you’ve zeroed in on something that people call hypology.
Okay.
Are you familiar with that word, hypology?
No, but I’m willing to learn.
All right.
All right.
Well, here’s how you spell it. It’s H-Y-P-A-L-L-A-G-E, hypology. And in language, that’s when a modifier seems to be misplaced or misapplied. Like, for example, maybe you had a restless night last night. Did you?
Fairly.
Fairly?
Yes, I did.
Right. Newborn in the house, though.
Oh, my gosh. It’s a little sketchy.
Oh, congratulations. That’s great news, though.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Exactly. So your baby might have been restless and you might have been restless, but actually the night wasn’t restless. But we still say it was a restless night, right?
Sure.
Yeah. And I saw a great one recently because I was flying and I was in the airplane laboratory and I was, I looked up and here’s this sign that says airsick bags. And I thought, oh, no, I hope they’re not. We might need them.
Yeah. Or what if these bags are airsick and puke on me?
You know, it’s one of those things, if you look too hard at it, you can start getting these funny little images in your head, like bags that are about to barf and, like you said, letters that are angry.
Right, red-faced letter.
Yeah, exactly. Outraged letters.
Yeah, I guess if you’re taking it too literally, it can be problematic sometimes.
So it’s hypology then.
Hypology, yeah. And it is a rhetorical device that is used sometimes to be poetic or to emphasize something. You know, Thomas Gray in his beautiful elegy in a country churchyard says, the plowman homeward plods his weary way. I mean, that’s just beautiful, but the way isn’t weary. He’s weary.
Yeah, it’s true. I just didn’t see it in print before I noticed it in this case.
I can understand the poetic license and how it’s used now a little bit better.
Yeah. What do you think, Grant? Are you outraged by outrage letter?
No, no, it doesn’t bother me in the least. And I appreciate it as a way of communicating an idea without taking a circuitous route.
Yeah, I mean, how would you say it otherwise?
The letter written by the outraged person.
Exactly. Well, Tom, thanks so much. I hope you don’t have too many restless nights.
No, my anger level is definitely on down a few notches thanks to your help.
Oh, good.
All right, thank you, Tom.
Good.
All right, bye-bye, Tom. Thanks for calling.
Bye.
Bye.
Nice, great, simple question, though. I like those. If you’ve got one, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or pop us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
