CACHE FLOW. In an issue of the Writers`Union of Canada`s newsletter, the organization`s chair reported thedisheartening sight of "hoards of fans hustling toward" the TorontoSkyDome to watch overpaid baseball players, instead of spending their moneymore profitably at a nearby book show. From out of what closets had sprung thisgolden horde of50,000 spectators, all prepared to pay $20 for a ticket to the game, yet noneof them apparently interested in accumulating a hoard of Canadian literature? Gossip. An anthropologist who, accordingto a Globe and Mail article, rejects the theory that human speech arose as ameans of communicating information about the environment, argues that itdeveloped for the purpose of social bonding, in other words, gossip. In fact,the article mentions gossip or its derivatives 10 times without indicating howthat interesting word itself entered the language. Gossip, from God`s sib or kin,originally meant someone who acquired a spiritual affinity with another person,such as a sponsor or godparent at a baptism. In time, the word became appliedto a woman`s female friends whom she invited to attend the birth of her child.Since the conversation on such occasions was likely to be of a light, personalnature, gossip eventually signified idle chatter, especially about the affairsof absent acquaintances. SINISTER MOUSE. Writing in praise of Windowssoftware, Michael Gilbert recommends that the user operate the mouse with the"left (or distaff) hand" to leave the right hand "free forimportant things." But the distaff, or rock, that held the coil ofloose fibre in manual spinning did not need to be grasped by either hand; itwas usually kept firmly in place by being tucked under the left arm or fixedinside the belt. The left hand drew the fibre that the right hand then twistedinto yam and wound around a rotating spindle, or fly. Since most early spinningwas performed by women, the words distaff and spinster were applied exclusivelyto them. Distaff side does not refer to a particular flank of the body; it issynonymous with spindle side and indicates descent through the female line. RIGHT WHALE, WRONG SOURCE? A Globeand Mail itemabout the death of a right whale off the New Brunswick coast claimed that thecreature`s name "refers to the fact that the slow-moving animals were the`right` ones to catch, particularly during the days of sailing ships and handharpooning. Yet the very simplicity of this suggested origin, regarded asprobable by Gage Canadian Dictionary, invites suspicion. Among its many sensesof the word right, the OED gives "having the true character of,"which it also applies to "some animals, esp. right whale." Whales aresubdivided into two groups: baleen (including the right whale) and toothed,both of which have long been hunted commercially. Perhaps the adjective rightoriginallydistinguished the large mammals from those lesser cetaceans that are usuallynot called whales but given separate names, such as porpoises and dolphins. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR. Biologistsare using the term bearanoia to describe the fear resulting from a rash ofbear attacks on people in Alaska. Yet phobia, meaning fear, would be abetter Greek-derived suffix than noia, from nous or mind. Some phobiawords are hybrid compounds, often intended as humorous, such as dustophobia or Iraqnophobia.Ursaphobia couldbe another way of indicating a dread of those furry omnivores. COIN OF THE REALM. To coin a wordor phrase is to invent it, not to borrow it or make it widespread. Credit forthe creation of popular new expressions may have many claimants, and it isusually easier to prove that a word could not have been first introduced by aparticular person. The Globe and Mail book reviewer who attributed the originof mobocracy toFisher Ames, an American politician, overlooked the fact that the word hadappeared at least as early as 1754, four years before its alleged coiner wasborn. Mobocracy, aLatinGreek hybrid combining mob (a shortened form of mobile vulgus, or excitable crowd) and cracy(poweror rule), was coined as a substitute for the very much older, but now lessfamiliar, ochlocracy. SUBSIDIARITY. The Financial Post columnistwho accurately described subsidiarity as an awkward word was less justified indenouncing it as "invented," nor did it enter the language because ofthe European Community, as the writer seemed to suggest. First used about 60years ago in connection with Christian social doctrine, and later applied topolitical power, subsidiarity refers to the principle that a central authorityshould perform only those tasks that cannot be undertaken more effectively at aregional or local level. Ottawa take note. BESPOKE, CUSTOM A Toronto establishment of "bespoke clothiers"offers a custom-made shirt with every suit purchase. Bespoke, synonymous with custom-made,yetseldom encountered in that sense in modem North America, may evoke a Dickensianimage of tailors and bootmakers to a carriage trade that spurns clothing andfootwear taken straight from the rack.