Here in the US of A, my neighbor – she’s down from Canada – takes off walking her dog. Says, “Off to finish our constitutional.”
I warned her, “Don’t use that word this week, it can be dangerous and start arguments.”
Here, in the States, electioneering is a full contact sport this year. And this week is Election Day.
I know, that’s just the fancy British way of saying, “Walking is healthy, so I’m taking my dog for a walk.”
But, ever since the press decreed that words mean whatever the speaker (even other speakers) might later say they mean, instead of what they meant when they came out of their mouth, ‘constitutional’ is just a meaningless adjective. Sounds grandiose. Impressive. ‘Constitutional’, as a word, has escaped its original legal meaning.
Got me to thinking: we used to write ‘the constitution’ out with ‘Constitution’ capitalized. Just like we used to write ‘the Bible’ with 'Bible' capitalized. I mean, ‘The Bible’, since it is the title of a book.
Hey! ‘The Constitution’, with ‘The’ capitalized is just a shortcut for ‘The Constitution of the United States of America’, title of an important document.
Just like we use to write ‘The President’ with both words capitalized; until those words became either a shame or a joke.