Sir Arnold Lunn was a writer who seems to have been better known as a skier. He was knighted for his skiing, but not his authorship. He lived from 1888 to 1974, and there’s a monument to him in Mürren, Switzerland where he organized the first world skiing championship in 1931. His father introduced him to skiing — this might have something to do with his father’s travel agency in London, which promoted holiday travel to the Swiss Alps. Skiers were already doing slaloms — scooting around poles as they headed downhill — but at the time slaloms were competitions of style, not speed. “I say, you looked a treat coming around that third pole, Nigel!”
Lund organized the first slalom race, where speed was the only factor. The race was held on January 1, 1922 — and although the race was his idea, Lund didn’t win. In fact it’s not clear whether he even raced — after all, he was 34 at the time, which might qualify as over the hill in ski racing. And of course if you’re over the hill, you’re obviously on the side opposite where the race is happening.
But his skiing career is completely beside the point. He was also a writer — and as such, both cantankerous and politically ultra-right-wing. He didn’t like the Nazis (they were rude), but he was quite the supporter of Mussolini’s brand of fascism. He also objected to language like what Philip Howard, literary editor of the London Times, called “those lying reversible phrases that mean the opposite of what we say.” For example, when someone says “with all due respect,” what they often mean is that they’re feeling no respect whatsoever.
Lund was evidently obsessed enough with these sorts of phrases (and possibly the general tenor of polite British society in the mid-20th century) that he coined a word for them: “phrops.” It first appeared in 1950, in an article in the “Daily Gleaner,” which was published in Jamaica, of all places. It also showed up in “The New Statesman,” and Howard also used it quite a few times himself. He mentioned the story in his 1985 book “The State of the Language.”
As far as I can tell, “phrops” hasn’t been included in dictionaries — at least not yet. But I’m sure it will be the next big thing. Oh, and on a personal note, we simply must keep in touch — in fact let’s get together sometime soon. And by the way, with all due respect, I just adore that new outfit you’re wearing.
