SYNONYMS for a columnist include contributor, feature writer, journalist, correspondent, newspaperman/woman, penman, critic, reviewer, commentator, scribbler, scribe, pen-pusher, hack, talking-head and thumb-sucker. I have provided the selected few from a plethora of others.
I think what I do fits in there somewhere. Which brings me to my word for the week: definition. This is a problematic concept because I heard a beggar tell a potential patron that he is not defined by his begging bowl.
That was a radical take on the assumptions we make when we speak, write or react, often causing unintentional grief.
My brief, when I was invited to write this column in 2017, was to write on anything that took my fancy. I chose to write in English, about English, and in a way that reflected…
