海角大神

I remember when I first heard the word 鈥渃ollusion.鈥�

Our family had just moved from a major metropolitan area to a town of about 10,000. One of the many adjustments we had to make was to retailers that didn鈥檛 carry much inventory. Anything we wanted that was not just plain vanilla seemed to require a special order from the regional distributor across the river in another state, or even from 鈥� gasp! 鈥� Atlanta.

Of course it was natural to have fewer choices in a smaller community. But the scuttlebutt we heard was that the situation was made worse by an inventory tax that local merchants had to pay on all goods in stock at the turn of the year. This gave them all an incentive to sell out of everything at the holidays and generally not to keep much merchandise on hand.

Well, I asked at one point of the grown-ups around me, clever 13-year-old that I was, couldn鈥檛 a merchant get around this by selling stuff to a friend at the end of the year and buying it back after he鈥檇 paid the tax?

The grown-ups were aghast. No, dear, that would be 鈥渃ollusion.鈥�

This was clearly not a good thing. It sounded like a portmanteau of 鈥渃ollision鈥� and 鈥渃onfusion.鈥� Someone may have used the word 鈥渇raud鈥� to explain what was wrong with my little tax-avoidance idea, and I certainly knew what fraud was.

Now with 鈥渃ollusion鈥� very much in the news, a little etymological research seems in order.

There鈥檚 something actually ludicrous about it. I鈥檓 not kidding. The word has been part of the English language since before 1400, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. It came into English via French from a Latin verb colludere, from com, or with, plus ludere, to play.聽

Ludere is also the root of 鈥渓udicrous,鈥� which originally meant 鈥渞elating to play or to sport鈥� before morphing, around 1780, into meaning 鈥渞idiculous,鈥� for which it is a near-anagram. (The sound symbolism must have been a factor there.)聽

Merriam-Webster identifies a number of word-cousins sharing that ludere root: 鈥淎llude鈥� embodies the notion of 鈥減laying to鈥� someone or something. A 鈥減relude鈥� is 鈥減layed before鈥� something, e.g., a church service.聽

鈥淒elude鈥� reflects the idea of 鈥減laying鈥� or 鈥渓aughing鈥� someone 鈥渄own鈥� 鈥� of a put-down, in short. 鈥淓lude鈥� seems to have meant something like 鈥渢o go out with a punch line鈥� before it meant 鈥渢o evade.鈥�

鈥淐ollusion鈥� has had a darker history from the beginning, though. 鈥淒espite their playful history,鈥� Merriam-Webster notes, 鈥�collude and collusion have always suggested deceit or trickery rather than good-natured fun.鈥澛�

But the idea of 鈥減lay鈥� does show up in the idiom so often used to refer to collusion: to 鈥減lay ball鈥� with someone else. And it鈥檚 actually more often used in the negative: 鈥淭hey wanted to involve him in their price-fixing scheme, but he wouldn鈥檛 play ball with them.鈥�

Let鈥檚 hear it for听苍辞迟 playing ball after all.