… is slowly abandoned!

All of you BUGgers out there would know that the English language is a moveable feast. English words change their meaning over time for a number of reasons.

For safety reasons even. Several of the really old, bitter and twisted hacks who compile this column remember when inflammable became flammable so that the general public would more easily understand the dangers of some baby clothes and driving too close to a petrol tanker. Some words change their meaning through constant misuse. Some get welded to new themes which explains why in olden days folk were not embarrassed about having a gay old time.

And, so, for this column, we turn our attention to the words abandon and abandoned, and ponder what they might one day come to mean if two segments on Nine News Queensland last night (Tuesday) are any guide.

In the 6pm bulletin on the tragic stabbing murder of the three-year-old lass near Bundaberg, reporter Pat Heagney described the crime scene as one where “tiny clothes still hung on the line and beside an abandoned pink bike”.

In the very next report on the tragic incident in Liverpool, England, where a car was driven through packed crowds celebrating an English premiership win, reporter Hanna Sinclair said this: “On the street and under the car lay the injured… abandoned prams too”.

Here’s the thing. Our wizened old compilers remember a time when to abandon something had the element of intent; that the abandoner did so on purpose. They’ve checked a number of online definitions of abandon and there appears to be general agreement as to its meaning still, including this one: ” The word “abandoned” often implies a deliberate or intentional act of relinquishing something, whether it’s a physical object, a right, or a responsibility. The word inherently suggests that the act of leaving or giving up was not accidental or unintentional.”

One of our compilers who fancies himself as a bit of a bush lawyer reckons law in many countries defines “abandonment” as a deliberate course of action and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

So, did that lovely little girl whose life has been tragically cut short before it hardy began really abandon her blue bike? Did parents mowed down in Liverpool really abandon their children’s prams? Did they have any say at all in that happening at opposite ends of the world?

Or are reporters such as Pat Heagney and Hannah Sinclair at the vanguard of a push in journalism to chip away over time at the words abandon and abandoned and to slowly remould public meaning as to what they mean?

Thoughts, BUGgers?

POSTCRIPT: The ABC’s 7pm Queensland bulletin last night covered both stories thoroughly and the word “abandoned” was not used once in either.

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