A Surfeit of Exotic English Use

This likely shows my ignorance of the English language, but I learned two new words today via a read of page 1 of “Business Day” in today’s New York Times (7/30/08).  The copy editor and reporters use the words brilliantly.  In a piece on Lone Star Funds’ purchase of Merrill Lynch mortgage-based investments (at a bargain basement price), Jenny Anderson, a great young reporter formerly of the New York Post, describes John Grayken (the aggressive, well-known head of Lone Star) as swooping in to buy “the detritus of today’s mortgage crisis.”  On a plane this morning to Atlanta, I circled the word as a reminder to look it up later.  In doing so, I eventually learned that the term is typically used in biology and is defined as non-living particulate organic material (also as bodies of dead organisms or fragments of organic or fecal matter, normally colonized by communities of microorganisms that decompose the material).  In ecosystems on land, according to Wikipedia, “detritus is deposited on the surface of the ground, taking forms such as the humic soil beneath a layer of fallen leaves.”  In other words, it’s the stuff left behind by decomposition — quite apropos in describing what Lone Star bought after Merrill “cleansed” its balance sheet.

The other advanced word (at least in my book) was surfeit, used in Michael Grynbaum’s story on the closing of multiple restaurant chains, including Bennigan’s, due to a dramatic decline in consumers’ dining out.  “Soaring food costs and a surfeitof locations” cut the chains’ profits just as consumers were beginning to increasingly prepare meals at home, according to Grynbaum.  Essentially, the word means overabundance or excess — which, again, seems to be a perfect description of how I perceive Bennigan’s, Steak & Ale, TGIF Friday’s and other places of similar fare and ilk.  They’re simply all over the place and virtually indistinguishable.