Harbourfront Library Puts Up “Umbrage” Book Display to Help You Expand Your Vocabulary

By
Avery
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Good afternoon. Have you received your daily dose of “umbrage” today? 

Fret not—I mean, umbrage not—because Harbourfront Library is here to help.

Harbourfront Library Puts Up “Umbrage” Book Display

Visitors to library@harbourfront in Vivocity will now be greeted with a special display of books. Front and centre on the display stand, in striking black capital letters, is a sign saying:

“UMBRAGE AND OTHER WORDS YOU SHOULD KNOW”.

On the stand is a variety of titles aimed at broadening one’s vocabulary, which, according to Must Share News, include:

  • “1001 Words You Need To Know And Use: An A-Z of Effective Vocabulary” by Marvin Manser
  • “Word Play: A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language” by Gyles Brandreth
  • “1000 Words To Expand Your Vocabulary” by Joseph Piercy
  • “Making A Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation” by David Crystal
  • “You Are Not Human: How Words Kill” by Simon Lancaster
  • “How to Sound Clever: Master the 600 English Words You Pretend to Understand When You Don’t” by Hubert van den Bergh

This can be an opportunity for genuine learning, if you enjoy tripping up others by slipping into your conversations words nobody knows about.

If this is you, please do not take umbrage.

Otherwise, it can be a chance to borrow some vocabulary books and passive-aggressively give them to your friend to highlight their linguistic inadequacies. 

Then they can take their daily umbrage, too. Good things are meant to be shared after all.

Why “Umbrage”?

If your internet has been cut off the last few days, do not take umbrage. Here’s a refresher to tell you about the latest obscure word to trend on the internet.

The word became trending in a press conference held by Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) about the restructuring of its media business, when a reporter asked if SPH could protect its editorial independence following the proposed reforms.

Ng Yat Chung, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SPH, replied rather aggressively, “So in reporting the answer to this, I will tell you first that the fact that you dare to question SPH titles for—in your words—’conceding to advertisers’, I take umbrage at that comment.”

Yeah, clearly, because the best way to maintain your journalistic reputation is to attack the journalist and deflect the valid questions they ask. 

Giving a calm and measured answer as your job demands at a press conference? Psh, who actually believes in that?

Nearly 12,000 (at the time of writing) Singaporeans, apparently.

The outburst was described as “unfortunate” by Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam, who added that “I want to be careful and understated, because SPH is a listed company (with) shareholders, management, and I need to be careful”.

That’s the code for: “He screwed up. Big time.”

Ng has since apologised for having taken umbrage.

For more ways at which Singaporeans have taken umbrage to Ng Yat Chung’s taking of umbrage, follow this link.

Feature Image: National Library Board (NLB) / Facebook (Jonathan Ho)

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Avery
Email: [email protected]