An Honourable Man

Peter Hitchens may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

He tends to generate strong feelings among those who read or hear him. He is either loathed or loved.

I do not loathe him.

While I may not agree with every one of his views, I admire him for the consistency and courage with which he expresses them, because they are based on a personal philosophy that is tested by experience and thoroughly thought through.

A socialist in his youth, he has, over his years, applied a considerable intellect to the worth of his values and tempered them on the fire of life and experience. He has settled on traditional, conservative and Christian principles, with which I broadly agree.

He is an honourable man.

He is also a most courteous man. In his blog he takes time to respond to his correspondents politely and in detail, correcting inaccuracies and restating his point when it has been missed.

He has a gift for dry, witty demolition of cant. In his post today, he conducts a delightfully forensic demolition of one of his opponents’ arguments, which I reproduce for the enjoyment of those who have not seen it:

‘Dave’ disagrees with me that the word 'homophobia' is a propaganda invention. Well, it would be interesting to trace its history and usage. It isn't in my beat-up and disintegrating Shorter Oxford Dictionary at all, but since that's half a century old, I'm not especially surprised. I'd guess it first found its way into dictionaries in the last five to ten years, and that it owes its origin to an American college campus, perhaps the University of Madison in Wisconsin, which I think is the birthplace of PC speech codes.

This weblog's full-time etymologist, Wilfrid, summoned complaining from his dusty, cobwebbed cubicle, writes: ’As a word “homophobia” is a triple nonsense, and the compilers of the Oxford Dictionary wouldn't have given it house room in the days when they stood up for serious knowledge. Those who use it almost invariably give away their ignorance as soon as they pronounce it, with the first syllable rhyming with "dome". In fact the first syllable of the word “homosexual” ought to rhyme with “Somme”. Why?

Because the “homo” concerned is a Greek word, meaning “the same” as in “homogeneous” or “homogenized” or “homophone”. And that is how it is pronounced. First syllable rhyming with “Somme” or “Bomb”. This helps to distinguish it from the Latin word “homo”, which means “man”. Ill-informed people have long thought that the word “homosexual” meant “person attracted sexually to men”, which is why you get the ridiculous coupling of “homosexual and Lesbian”. Lesbians are homosexuals. But they're female homosexuals.

‘Then there's “phobia”. This is also from a Greek root, meaning fear or dislike of. So, the two Greek words put together would mean “fear of the same”, which is meaningless drivel. Whereas if it's a hybrid, pseudo-classical word (like “Television”) it would mean 'fear of man', which it plainly doesn't. The only way in which “homophobia” makes sense at all is if it's a semi-literate coupling of a Greek word with an old English abusive slang word for a homosexual, not in use now and not heard in use by me these 40 years, ie “homo” (pronounced to rhyme with “Omo”, a washing powder popular in the 1960s).’

Wilfrid's a bit pompous for modern tastes - but he knows his stuff. He adds, perhaps more in hope than in certainty: ‘The compilers of the Oxford dictionary seem to have had a bit of a dispute about this, because there are two completely separate entries for “homophobia”. The first (described as “rare” which is a bit of an understatement) is "Fear or hatred of the male sex or humankind". The second gives "fear or hatred of homosexuals and homosexuality". Then we get "homophobe- a person who is afraid of or hostile to homosexuals and homosexuality”.

Thank you, Wilfrid.

Delicious.