MARK MY WORD

Mark My Word

The best course of action to take sometimes isn't clear until you've listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

Mark My Words!
Congress passes bills with "earmarks." The president wants the Iraqi government to reach certain "benchmarks." Is this a new form of "Marks-ism"?

Not to worry, comrade. Our public servants are just using old terms in new ways.

-- earmark -- Farmers, shepherds and ranchers notch the ears of their livestock with distinctive patterns called "earmarks" for easy identification. A villain in one of Mark Twain's novels, for instance, speaks of notching someone's ears "like a sow."

(Twain of course named himself for another kind of mark -- the call of a steamboat deckhand to the captain reporting a depth of two fathoms or "safe water." Hey, it was a lot catchier than "Samuel Langhorne Clemens.")

"Earmark" naturally became a general term for any distinguishing characteristic, as in, "The project had all the earmarks of success." As a verb, "earmark" came to mean "to designate something for a special purpose," as in, "We earmarked the money for education."

That's why a special provision that a legislator wants included in a bill is called an "earmark." This might be an allocation for a project that will be popular with voters in the legislator's home state or district. Think bridges, tunnels and parks. 

I trust that what you've read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

So "earmark" has become a handy euphemism for "pork barrel" or "pork," an older, livestock-derived term meaning "fat and juicy goodies."

-- benchmark -- You might assume this term for a fixed standard or criterion comes from marks made on the bench of a carpenter or cobbler, but in fact it originated in the science of surveying.

To determine the exact elevation of a point, surveyors make a cut or mark on a fixed object, such as a rock or wall, and then use that cut to secure an angle iron. This cut or mark is called a "benchmark" because the angle iron serves as a platform or bench for mounting measuring equipment.

This benchmark is then used as a reference point for all other measurements, hence its figurative meaning as a standard of quality. The verb "benchmark" means "to study a competitor's products or practices in order to compare them with one's own."

President James Garfield once set this standard for a college education: "a bench with Mark Hopkins on one end of it and me on the other." Now that's what I call a "benchmark."

========

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators
 

If you've picked some pointers about benchmark that you can put into action, then by all means, do so. You won't really be able to gain any benefits from your new knowledge if you don't use it.