A literary masterpiece can’t be painted if subtle shades of meaning no longer exist.

By Steve Finan

August 20 2022, 6:00am

This week I’m going to moan about “almost errors” I have seen recently. Not as bad as real errors, but not good either.

A “cameo role” isn’t merely a brief appearance. Football commentators almost routinely say a substitute coming on is playing a cameo role. But the full meaning requires a little more intrigue. A cameo is a fleeting part played by a well-known face in a movie or play. These appearances are perhaps surprising, or hold special significance.

And it doesn’t have to be an actor. Stephen King makes short appearances in almost every film based on his books. Alfred Hitchcock was seen in background roles of 40 of the 54 films he directed. These are cameos because an authorial or directorial part in the process weaves significance into an on-screen presence.

In a similar vein, a Freudian slip isn’t a run-of-the-mill mistake. It requires the uttering of a subdued, sometimes lascivious, desire. Or refers to an unexpressed, probably best-kept-internal, train of thought.

And a red herring doesn’t only mean “wrong”. It is an unimportant matter that, for a time, distracted everyone from the correct answer.

“Old school” isn’t solely old. You wouldn’t describe something from the 1890s as old school. It must be within an older head’s memory and have a whiff of different – better – standards.

“Caught in a cleft stick” isn’t just a difficult decision. The idiom’s correct meaning is to be forced to choose between equally disastrous courses of action.

Penultimately, I contend (you might disagree) that “the show must go on” is slightly different to “carry on regardless”. To get the full flavour of the former your personal feelings have to be involved. There is a drama of hurt, loss, or emotion involved in a show that must go on.

Lastly, I wish to point out that “the emperor’s new clothes” means there is nothing interesting to see, despite what the wearer appears to think. But this phrase is often used when people mean the exact opposite: that there is something gaudy to be seen.

These examples could be described as “almost errors” because they are often (apart from the emperor’s new clothes) used approximately correctly. But the full flavour isn’t brought out.

And what good is a text if the writer meant one thing but the reader interprets it as something else?

“Almost errors” dilute a phrase or word until the guileful, nuance-laden, crafted extent of their meanings is all but washed away. This makes our language less expressive, less artful, and less intelligent.

A literary masterpiece can’t be painted if subtle shades of meaning no longer exist.