Radio Derb Errata: Oh, THAT’s Where Catalonia Is!

By John Derbyshire

10/07/2017

A mighty host of listeners and readers has arisen to tell me that Catalonia is in the northeast corner of Spain, not the southeast.

Of course it is. I don’t know why I said "southeast." I know where the darn place is: I've been there. Momentary lapse into catatonia?

And while I’m logging errata, in the September 22nd podcast I committed the following, while commenting on Kim Jong Un having referred to our President with some Korean term that was translated as "dotard":

The "-ard" suffix is a common way to form a mild pejorative in English, deriving from a root meaning tough or unrefined, same root as the English word "hard."

So we have "bastard," "coward," "drunkard," "laggard," "retard," "sluggard," "braggart" (with a slight change of consonant), and of course "niggard."

Several listeners pointed out that "retard" doesn’t belong on the list. The "-ard" there is not the old pejorative suffix; it’s from Latin tardus = "slow."

Homer nods and so do I. Heck, I write way more than Homer did.

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