ROOTS
Issues galore
Deepti

“Basically, I have no issues, cold coffee is fine”, so said the 20-plus. Utterances like these make 40-somethings begin to feel their age, for excuse me, isn’t an issue an important topic or debatable problem? Based on the Latin exire or ‘go out’, issue also, (I thought) referred to the issue of bank notes, a child of one’s own, a supply or a flow of; so how can it refer to a mundane choice?

In law, the word ‘issue’ denotes the fundamental disagreement upon which judge or jury must decide, leading on to create ‘point at issue’. The ‘issues’ in contemporary society stem from that. American society is known for turning to the law or the gun at the drop of a hat, so, a word like ‘issue’ that means ‘point of disagreement’ easily makes a quick trip to the connotation ‘problems’ or ‘difficulties’. And basically? A word that comes from the Latin basis or pedestal basically has today become a prefix and tag for every utterance. Once a word reaches the everyday world, its fate rests in the hands of the language user, so anyone can have ‘issues’ over anything, basically or otherwise!

‘Fatal’, to begin with, did not refer to anything that caused death. In Chaucer’s time, when it was born, it came from the Latin fatalis or fate and meant ‘destined by fate or ominous’, also related to fatum or ‘that which was spoken’, a clear reference to God’s decree. Through usage, it came to be associated with death and now, it is getting back some of its benign nature. Today, the computer warns of ‘fatal’ errors and sauce on a white shirt can be ‘fatal’. Well, as they say my friend, it’s all relativity at work!

A friend regularly sends her son and husband to the movies for a spot of male bonding.

Bond as a verb is a development of ‘bind or bond’, which means ‘physically tied or restrained’; the origin lies in the Sanskrit bundh or ‘restraint’. The contemporary male ‘bonding’ is an American usage that has no equivalent for women; presumably, women are always ‘bonded’!