Peace with all nations: a rant.

Look, I truly believe that language is pretty much the most important talent humans possess, and I truly believe that, as Francis Bacon tells us, reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. 


Exactness - precision - is vital in writing if you want people to have some chance of working out what on earth you're going on about.

But all the same, making a fuss about the lack of an Oxford comma on a new coin (even one commemorating an event which you deplore)* on the day of the seventy fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz does, I fear, tend to show a certain self-centredness and insensitivity.

Though actually I think the criticism was probably mostly made in blind anger.

Word To Use Today: peace. This word comes from the French pais, from the Latin pāx.


*The coin in question is a British 50p piece commemorating Britain's leaving of the European Union, which will happen, for good or ill (probably some of both) tomorrow. The legend on the back of the coin says peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations. Some people believe that there should be a comma after prosperity and before and because it's the penultimate item in a list. This piece of punctuation is called the Oxford (though some say it should be the Harvard) comma. 

Mostly, though, in my experience, most publishers (as well as the rest of us) aren't that bothered either way as long as the meaning is clear.