- By Jim Evans
- Entertainment
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SMART TALK SMART TALK by Dr. Perse P. Cassidy
UNDERBELLY: We at the Center for English as a First Language aren’t singling out our municipal host. Honest. That would seem ungrateful to a fine little town that has accepted our campus and the economic activity it generates with good grace. Besides, for Texas, Underbelly isn’t such an strange name. Texans are used to outsiders laughing at their town names, such as Toadsuck, Ding Dong (in Bell County, of course), Looneyville, and Uncertain.
But ours may be the only town whose name is a one-word redundancy. Why do we speak of an underbelly but not an overback? Both are about equal in silliness. But one-word redundancies seem rather special to me, and I’ve become the on-staff collector of these oddities.
How about eyesight? What’s wrong with sight, or vision? What other organ do we use to see with? If we say eyesight, why not earhearing?
And seagull. Ever try to look up seagull in a bird book? No such critter. You’re no more likely to find seagull in a bird book than you’ll find a hot water heater in a plumbing supply store. They’re gulls. Herring gulls, ringneck gulls, but not seagulls, any more than waterfish. But we do say tunafish for some reason, even though it says tuna on the can.
Then we have wintertime, springtime, and summertime for those who didn’t know seasons are times, and downfall to aid the directionally challenged.
I’m surprised Texas, unlike several other states, has no Glendale. Glen means valley. Dale means valley. Makes you wonder. I’m sure they have taxicabs in those towns, too.
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