Spreading the word

Author Max Cryer educated his Masterton audience on Tuesday night on why we call a spade a spade, and we educated him on the meaning of the phrase "hakari mole".

More than 130 people turned out to the PaperPlus event to promote Mr Cryer's 11th book, Curious English Words and Phrases.

Mr Cryer said the book was two years in the making and contained 1500 English words and phrases with their meanings and origins.

"I think of English being like a huge old city - any city you know has the same mixture."

He said as with a city's buildings, the English language had old and new, some being torn down and forgotten while others stood the test of time.

Mr Cryer lamented the loss of the words poultry, hens and chooks - the Americans opting for the one size fits all "chicken" - and the misuse of the word loft and lost apostrophes.

The book contains the origins of borrowed and stolen words - coffee coming from Arabic and tulip from Turkish.

Mr Cryer enlightened us on the origin of phrases such as "hard yakka" and crushed any romantic ideas about St Valentine and Santa Claus.

Former Conservative Party candidate Brent Reid discussed the meaning of the phrase "hakari mole" with Mr Cryer, who had apparently not understood the phrase previously.