'Those Irritants That Get Into Our Shoes and Sting'

Yet again, an English word surprises me with its multiple meanings. A reader complimented the “scruples” I apply to writing. I thought I knew the meaning of that word but wanted to check. Dr. Johnson doesn’t include scruples in his Dictionary but for scrupulous he gives: “nicely doubtful; hard to satisfy in determinations of conscience.” For the singular form, scruple, the OED gives ten definitions, starting with: 

“A thought or circumstance that troubles the mind or conscience; a doubt, uncertainty or hesitation in regard to right and wrong, duty, propriety, etc.; esp. one which is regarded as over-refined or over-nice, or which causes a person to hesitate where others would be bolder to act.”

 

Given that definition, I’ll accept the compliment. I look upon every word as a conscious choice. When I’m writing, especially simple subject-verb-object sentences, most words come automatically, at least through the first draft. I review what arrived without effort, read it aloud and decide what stays and what goes. It’s remarkable the gibberish you can produce on first pass. Here’s another related OED definition of scruple: “a doubt or uncertainty as to a matter of fact or allegation; an intellectual difficulty, perplexity, or objection.” This post started with a scruple about scruples.

 

Subsequent definitions in the OED: “disbelief or doubt” (thus, Shakespeare: “Whereat I, wretch, / Made scruple of his praise . . .”), “suspicion,” “a quibble, fine distinction,” “disbelief or doubt.” Scruple is even a verb: “to doubt, question, hesitate to believe.” It comes from Latin by way of French: “diminutive of scrūpus rough or hard pebble, used figuratively by Cicero for a cause of uneasiness or anxiety.”

 

Writing, even something simple as a blog post, involves a thousand minute decisions about sound and sense, and taking many pains. Judging from “Scruples” (The Calligraphy Shop, 2003), Ben Downing understands:

 

“Chipped off the Latin for

‘small sharp stone,’ they are

those irritants that get

into our shoes and sting

our feet until we stop,

stoop, and dump them out.”

 

Unwanted words are irritants, those “small sharp stones” in our shoes.