Pick up any news article that deals with the bestowing of some sort of honor, be it the Super Bowl championship, winning the presidency of the United States, being named a beauty queen or being appointed hallway monitor at your high school. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter.<\/p>\n
What these supposed honors have in common is the choice of words the awardees use. Invariably, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll run across \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m humbled to have been elected president.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parse the word. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s examine its usage and examine why people have virtually reversed the meaning of the word. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say somebody wins a mayoral election and says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m extremely humbled to have been chosen as your mayor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That sentence will doubtless be followed by the grandiose plans Se\u00c3\u00b1or or Se\u00c3\u00b1ora Mayor wishes to put in place.<\/p>\n
Most post-election speeches contain a smattering of plans, but before getting to the vast improvements, the audience generally needs to hear how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the winner has become. Most dictionaries define \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153marked by meekness or modesty, not arrogant or prideful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Another alternative meaning given is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153submissive respect,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as in a humble apology. Yet another alternate meaning says someone \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humble\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153low in rank, quality, or station, unpretentious or lowly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So now that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve parsed the word in every way possible, we begin to look at the word not as a way of bragging but of displaying humility.<\/p>\n
How did that self-deprecating word come to fit in so nicely in every political acceptance speech we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard this year? My belief, based mainly on the sheer repetition of the word, is that some famous person used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the context of promising to be the public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s humble servant.
\nBut let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not forget that a servant also cleans up the mess.<\/p>\n
The use of humble must have been uttered by some prominent figure whose followers said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hmm. I like that word,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and as a result fans adopt the word and repeat it often.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has a host of antonyms, such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153base,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lowly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unworthy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153modest.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Why, then have so many people christened the word with an opposite meaning? For example, former football great Matt Millen, upon joining the NFL network team, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is very exciting to be joining . . . an outstanding crew of professionals on the Thursday Night Football telecasts. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am humbled.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
No, Matt \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you have it wrong. Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you call your new job an honor, a great privilege or a dream-come-true?<\/p>\n
In one of Shakespeare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plays, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153King Henry VIII,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the Queen says to Henry, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have been to you a true and humble wife.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
It is clear that their tumultuous marriage has caused the queen great unhappiness. She uses the word correctly, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not filled with braggadocio, as if she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d scored the winning touchdown in overtime in Sunday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Super Bowl game.<\/p>\n
Even super model Christie Brinkley said she is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153humbled\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to have her photo appear in the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.<\/p>\n
By whatever yardstick one uses, being humbled is not an enviable position. Listen for the word in the context of any speech in which the person being honored claims to be humbled.<\/p>\n
Some readers may recall that on several occasions I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned that sometimes I hear or read an unusual word. Well, that word seems to be repeated on every newscast, in every newspaper and in every country-western tune on radio.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written about the misuse of this word in past columns, yet the problem persists.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
On the Internet, I found a list of items that make the typical English teacher look for another job. This list is credited to Eric K. Auld.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
I received zero replies to last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Biblical question: Was there a slightly overweight male present at the nativity in Bethlehem? If so, please name him.<\/p>\n
The answer is clear; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contained in the hymn, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Silent Night,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it identifies the slightly overweight man as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Round John Virgin,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who apparently stood next to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mother and Child.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
As mentioned last week, the quality of the Bible questions made the challenge too easy. So I promised to present questions at the post-doctoral level.<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one: When the tribes of Judah and Simeon fought the Canaanites, what did they do to Adoni-bezek?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pick up any news article that deals with the bestowing of some sort of honor, be it the Super Bowl championship, winning the presidency of the United States, being named a beauty queen or being appointed hallway monitor at your high school. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter. What these supposed honors have in common is the choice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}