OUR KIND OF ENGLISH: Jeans trousers? No, we say jeans
What you need to know:
We probably wouldn’t mind if this goof was confined to windowpane adverts, for no one expects shop owners and their script writers to be proficient language users.
As I walked past a clothing shop in my part of town in Kinondoni District recently, I saw an advert posted on a windowpane, and it read: “New arrivals— Jeans trousers; Jeans shirts, Jeans shorts…”
We probably wouldn’t mind if this goof was confined to windowpane adverts, for no one expects shop owners and their script writers to be proficient language users.
However, it cannot be taken lightly if it’s committed by members of the Fourth Estate who should know better.
In his last week’s piece, a seasoned columnist expressed his disenchantment over the way parents keep quiet as their daughters “don micro-mini jeans skirts”.
Oops! Even in the Kiswahili media, our fashion scribblers are given to writing things like “suruali ya jeans”, “sketi ya jeans”… We won’t pin this on any specific scribbler because the “jeans trousers/shirts/pants falsity is everywhere. It’s for this reason we’ve no qualm repeating ourselves—in the pedantic hope that everybody will do it right in due course, inshallah!
The word JEANS—to quote from our Oxford dictionary—means TROUSERS made of strong cotton, especially DENIM. Which is to say, if you’re referring to some clothing item that’s made of material used to make jeans, then, qualify it with “denim”—like denim shirt, denim skirt, denim jacket. Or, of course, denim trousers (not jeans trousers).
We need to always beware of words that sound alike—or somewhat alike—while their spelling and meanings are miles apart.
Now in the Friday, March 16 edition of the tabloid closely associated with columnist, there’s a piece entitled, “Impotence is a real crisis’ and therein, the scribbler says of men with sexual dysfunction:
“Instead of being helped, they become the laughing STOKE of the community”. Nope, they become the laughing STOCK. The word “stoke” is actually a verb that means adding fuel to a fire. Now when everybody around makes a mockery of you, we say you’ve become the laughing stock (not stoke).
In the same story, the scribbler informs his readers about certain leaves, roots and shoots that sources claim enhance a man’s libido. He writes: “ Maneno is a well know (sic) user of these HUBS which he claims works (sic) wonders, preferring the Congolese one called “’kasongo’”. The leaves, roots and shoots from plants that are purported to bear ingredients which can cure impotence are not called hubs; they’re HERBS (pronounced /hebs/).
In his final paragraph, the scribbler says: “As I write this, Kaburu is admitted IN hospital nursing a broken jaw.” Admitted in hospital? No; we say “admitted TO hospital.”
