Bromides

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Matt. How are you?

Hi, Matt. Welcome to the program.

Thank you. I’m calling from Encinitas, California.

Encinitas, hello.

Hello.

So I was listening to NPR on the way to work a couple weeks ago, and they were speaking with an author who was writing about bromides in sports.

And my question is about the word bromides.

So the example that he gave, or one of the examples that I remember anyway, was in the fourth down to call a timeout to ice the kicker.

And I don’t know much about sports, but I came home and looked up the word bromide, and it said a cliché or a platitude.

But my question is more about the evolution of the word, because from my background in science, I know that bromide is along the lines of chloride or iodide that combines to form salts.

And I know from medicine that bromides were once a remedy.

And so I looked in an old Merck manual that I have at home from the 50s, and it said that bromides were used as a sedative and a treatment for epilepsy.

So I wondered if and how it got from the sort of scientific use to the modern use in English.

We can help you with that.

So bromide is sort of a boring, dull platitude.

I gave 110%.

Right.

I left it all on the field.

Right.

Our team came to play.

Well, what else did you come for?

Right?

Right?

That’s a sports bromide.

And you’re right.

It derives from the idea of potassium bromide being used as a sedative.

And the idea of bromides being boring platitudes is connected with the fact that there was a humorist around the turn of the century, early 1900s, named Gillette Burgess.

Who wrote a book called Are You a Bromide?

And in it, he talked about people who were really boring versus people who were exciting and interesting, like Grant and me.

I feel bromidic, actually.

And the bromides were the boring people and the sulfites were the lively people.

And he listed a whole bunch of bromides that were just boring platitudes that you might expect one of these mythological people to say, like, you know, 500 channels and nothing to watch.

So there’s expressions that sort of put you to sleep, like the medicine.

Exactly. That’s exactly it.

Okay.

That’s pretty much it.

So surprisingly, the article that he originally published in the Smart Set, which talked about this, and the book became successful and were heavily written about in newspapers in New York at the time.

And it was just kind of a thing that caught on.

And the word lasted, but the meaning changed because in the original use, bromide was the person who said these platitudes.

And then it kind of transformed into the actual platitude itself.

Interesting.

But it does go back to the, you were right on target, it goes back to the sedative, potassium bromide.

Thanks for answering the question.

I enjoy your show.

It’s one of the few places on the dial where you can hear something positive and fun rather than, you know, about all the other things going on in the world.

Oh, that’s awesome.

I knew there was a reason that we wore clown makeup to the studio.

Thanks, Matt.

No bromides here.

Thanks.

Take care.

Oh, we have a few.

Yeah, we do.

One of the things we say all the time is give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send your language questions and email to words@waywordradio.org.