Word for the wise ©
Our lexical wanderings have led us as far as H and the Word for the wise© today is a "deplorable consequence of democracy", as de Tocqueville said of something else. It means to shout insults or questions to disconcert somebody who is making a speech.
heckle has its physical origins in the business of "beating flax". The verb went metaphysical in the 18th century around Dundee, once a great flax harvesting area, where it came to describe the robust Scottish tradition of the "public questioning of Parliamentary candidates." Once heckling became acceptable behaviour, the ability to put down a heckler with a sharp retort turned into an essential political skill. Here's an example: heckler (interrupting British Prime Minister Harold Wilson during a speech about his government's spending plans): "What about Vietnam?" Wilson: "The government has no plans to increase public expenditure in Vietnam". Heckler: "Rubbish!" Wilson: "I'll come to your special interest in a minute, sir." Today, alas, heckling is a dying art as politicians minimize the potential for disruption by delivering their speeches to carefully pruned audiences in staged settings. By the way, and this is pertinent, did you know that an "international journal of verbal aggression" exists? It's called Maledicta and here's an article Andrew Conway wrote for it in 1994 about that bane of the stand-up comedian, the heckler.
Next week, it's "I", which offers all those -isms and -ists.
