Antisemitism is a word I have written about more than once, but clearly, it’s a word we need to look at again. What is it that the Albanese government has failed to tackle? The Oxford lists its first appearance in English as 1880. In that year, it was widely used in German newspapers and made its way into English. It was used to label the vitriolic attacks of German politician, journalist and editor, Wilhelm Marr, on Jews who  he labelled ‘Semites’ so it made sense to label his attacks as ‘antisemitism’. But the word had been coined in Germany a century earlier by Moravian historian Moritz Steinschneider to label the false and offensive ideas of French philosopher Ernest Renan that ‘Semitic races’ were inferior to ‘Aryan races’ (the poisonous notion that would drive Hitler’s Nazis as they pursued their evil aims in the Holocaust). So, how should it be defined? The International Holocaust Alliance uses this definition: ‘Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.’ Jillian Segal, in her report to the Albanese government on antisemitism, says the government should adopt this definition, which is excellent, but too long. As a wordsmith who believes that brevity and clarity are what work in language, I think we can boil the International Holocaust Alliance definition down to just two words: ‘Jew hatred’. That’s what should be banned!

‘Unclubbable’ is a quaint, and now dated, word. To be labelled ‘unclubbable’ meant a man was literally so unsociable as to be unsuited to be a member of a club. When I have come across it in older books, it usually meant a man who would not fit in at one of the famous gentlemen’s clubs of London – Whites, the Athenaeum, the Travellers or whatever. But it is older than that. It was first recorded in the 1760s, not long after Dr Samuel Johnson’s legendary dictionary appeared in 1755. Johnson was a very ‘clubbable’ man. His circle of friends was called The Club. But, unlike later ‘gentlemen’s clubs’, they did not have their own premises, instead they always met in coffee houses. Based on the coincidence of those dates, the great American Merriam-Webster dictionary guesses that ‘unclubbable’ was coined by the great Dr Johnson (and they may well be right). It first appears in print in 1764 in the journals of novelist Fanny Burney, who writes: ‘Sir John was a most unclubbable man!’ One of my favourite Oxford language philosophers is J.L. Austin. On weekdays, he lived in his college rooms, teaching and lecturing, but at weekends, he left Oxford to spend his time with his wife and children on a small farm. This led to him being labelled ‘unclubbable’. When C.S. Lewis (in his younger years, highly ‘clubbable’) married Joy Davidman in 1956, his friends complained he had become ‘unclubbable’ (because he wanted to spend time with his wife!) As I said – a quaint and now entirely dated word.