1. Undergarments
Readers may recall a question asked by Naveen (EFU September 20, 2007) ‘Why is it undergarments and not beneath garments?

Sundaram has sent an answer. ‘Under is used in contrast to over and not upper.  For example we have the term overcoat’.

He then cites some contrasting pairs: overground-underground; overachiever—underachiever.

Right or wrong, Sundaram has given some thought to the question.  This is what matters.  If my column sets people thinking, it will have more than justified itself.

As for Naveen’s question: beneath in its literal sense refers to a point or area directly below something. The dolphins disappeared beneath the waves.  Under, as Sundaram has pointed out, is the opposite of over with reference to something. The water which was flowing over the bridge is now flowing under it.

Undergarments are garments which are usually worn below some other garments (but see below). Under has meaning with reference to these garments. You put on a shirt. Under it you may have a ‘buniyan’, as we call it, or an undershirt as the Americans call it. The point is: in undergarments the primary reference is not in respect of   the body parts they cover but in respect of the clothes we wear over them.

More recently, actually for some years now, we are seeing undergarments worn as overgarments — especially by women in gyms.

2. Sundaram has two questions of his own. To beg the question, to beggar description — what do these mean?
To beg the question is a ‘fallacy’ in Logic; i.e. a pseudo or false reasoning. Something may be offered as an explanation or proof when in fact it is already assumed as true without proof. An example: We assume that rebirth (or ‘reincarnation’) is a fact by appealing to our scriptures which speak of it. But what is the proof for the scriptural statement as being true? (This should not be taken to mean that I don’t believe in rebirth. I do, as a staunch Hindu.  But my belief in it is not a proof of its being true.) Most religious statements (of all religions) are matters of faith. To use them to ‘prove’ a point is to beg the question. There are several ways of ‘proving’ something without actually doing so. The example given above is one way of begging the question. It is called ‘arguing in a circle.’ The technical name for begging the question is petition principii.

To beggar description: ‘impossible to describe adequately; makes poor (beggars) all attempts at description’. Words fail to give a true and proper account of what we are trying to describe.

The phrase occurs in Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra. The Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra, was so beautiful and magnificent as she sailed down the river in her golden barge (to meet Antony) no words could give a proper picture of the scene. As Enobarbus says: The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,/Burn’d on the water; the poop was beaten gold,/ Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that/ The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,….For her own person / it beggared all description (2.2.198-213).

3. Wg. Cdr. Hande has sent a number of questions.

a. Why ‘an historic’? Is h in historic silent?

Yes, it was silent till about the middle of the 20th century.  Many older speakers even today don’t sound it.  As for the title of Visser’s book An Historical Syntax of the English Language (cited in EFU sometime ago), the work appeared in 4 vols. between 1963-73. Visser is the greatest authority on the history of English syntax.  So when he wrote An, he was partly indicating how the word history was pronounced all along, until even his day and, perhaps, how he himself pronounced it.  Today with most people, especially the younger speakers, h is sounded.
Is it ‘Please be rest assured; or ‘please rest assured’? Mr Hande notes that the second expression is the correct one. Yes, but it would be better without please. Those who say ‘please be rest assured’ are obviously under the impression that rest assured is one phrase where rest modifies assured. It is a type of assurance, of a higher degree than being merely assured.  The listener is urged to be in that higher state of assurance. 

But it is not so.  Rest   is a verb, like be. You can have one or the other but not both. The correct forms are: be assured / rest assured.

Contact the writer at ksyadurajan@yahoo.com