Mea Culpa: Frightened off by being stuck in a lift

Questions of usage and style in The Independent last week

Pope Francis was rescued by firefighters after his elevator moment last week (AFP/Getty)

I had to take the stairs to my office in parliament this week because two colleagues were stuck – briefly – in the lift, and I didn’t want to take the risk. It is an old lift that never inspires confidence that it will make it all the way up.

So I sympathised with the pope, who was stuck in a lift for 25 minutes in the Vatican last week, and had to be rescued by firefighters. Anyway, we reported that, “unphased by the lift ordeal”, he went on to deliver a speech in which he urged governments to find the political will to deal with climate change.

Thanks to Mick O’Hare for pointing out that this should have been “unfazed”. “Faze” is an unusual word, so it is always likely to be spelt like the more familiar one that sounds the same. But “faze” is a variant of “feeze”, meaning “drive or frighten off”, which became popular in the US in the 19th century, but which comes from Old English “fesian”.