Mea Culpa: Grey matter

Susanna Richards goes bear-hunting in last week’s Independent

A so-called grisly bear (top left) does its best to look fearsome (Getty)

Human bones found in grizzly discovery near airport” read a headline on our website last week. Reader Paul Edwards kindly wrote to inform us that we had erred; the word we were looking for was “grisly”, meaning gruesome. The two words have different origins and meanings, though they are often confused; “grizzly” is from the Middle English and Old French words for grey, while “grisly” has a Germanic origin meaning “horrible, to be feared”.

Interestingly, the Canadian explorer who first described grizzly bears in the 18th century wrote that “Bears are three kinds: the black, the red, and the grizzle bear”; a few years later they were described by his Scottish and American counterparts as “grisly”, or “grisley”, which might equally have referred to the character of these beasts, which were reported as being “savage and ferocious”. Thereafter, for quite a long time, the three spellings were used interchangeably. Anyway, our concern is only with modern usage, which is more or less settled, and as such the mistake was corrected.

Dressing down: We reported in an article about children abducted from Ukraine that “officials have said they have evidence that some of [them] are taken to ‘re-education’ camps to learn Russian language, couture and history”. That should have said “culture”, I think, though there is a lot to admire in the traditional textiles and costumes of Eurasia, and I wish we had been writing about the rich heritage of the region instead of the cruelties of conflict. Perhaps one day.