BELT AND BRACES, anyone?

Hi y’all, hope you had yourselves a wonderful week, wherever you are in the world. Here in my corner of the world the day is sunny and the mercury is climbing. I think it might read 30 today. Umm, centigrade. If you see the world in Fahrenheit, kindly convert. I mean hot and sunny.

Today I want to take a look at two words and a saying, all of which I find interesting.

A TURNCOAT

You can see two words in this one: turn + coat. What on earth could it mean? Think of someone who turns on you or betrays you, and you’ve got the idea. The context is usually bigger than one individual being disloyal to another. Think of the army or politics, and changing sides or teams.

I like to think of a soldier in 19-century uniform who flips their coat inside out so it’s no longer the colour of the army they are supporting. But that’s just my idea. More historically accurate is hiding the badge that was on the coat, showing which side you were loyal to.

A turncoat refers to a person. Here are a few sample sentences.

Afraid of being caught, the turncoat ran for his life and hid in the forest while the sounds of cannon and gunfire came from all sides.

The turncoat switched parties in the middle of the campaign – unheard of!

HIGHLIGHT

I’m sure you’ve got at least a few highlighters in your pencil case and when you did go to an actual physical school (don’t worry, I’m sure you will again), your teachers would sometimes ask you to pull out a highlighter and highlight a few lines or words in a textbook. Correct?

Today I’m interested in another use of the word “highlight”, meaning to point something out or to emphasise something. See how well you understand the usage of “highlight” in the following sample sentences:

I wish to highlight the fact that unemployment is down by 8%.

In his lecture, the guest speaker highlighted socio-economic projects in 10 villages across East Africa.

BELT AND BRACES

Now this is a really interesting one! I only heard it the other day, and immediately looked it up. The expression is used in Britain where “braces” means suspenders and not what you use to straighten your teeth.

I’ve come across two versions so far: a belt and braces job and a belt and braces approach.

So what does it all mean? Think of someone who wants to keep their pants (ok, trousers) up. To make extra sure that they won’t fall, they not only use a belt but suspenders (braces) as well. You might think that they’re overdoing it, but they want to make sure nothing untoward will happen.

So if someone talks about a belt and braces job or a belt and braces approach, they have been doubly careful about a task or other situation, but only one action was necessary. For instance, if you email, text, and call a person because you want to make sure you get a response from them. Or if you’re mailing a package and you seal it with masking tape then staple it. It is a minimum of two things you do to be cautious.

Take a look at the examples:

Some might argue that wearing a mask and gloves, and head-to-toe protective gear is a belt and braces approach to the current pandemic.

It was a belt and braces job for the police – they had already ascertained the man’s guilt; now they were looking for more evidence and witnesses to clinch the case.

Try these words and phrases out this week in your speaking or writing. If you’ve got a sentence you’d like to share, post it in the comments.

I’ll be signing off now.

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