Egregious

·      Donald Trump terminated all trade negotiations with Canada “based on their egregious behaviour.”

·      Pakistan has an egregious record of assassinations among its leaders.

·      Benjamin Netanyahu’s egregious disregard for civilian suffering has drawn widespread international condemnation.

Now, look at the following sentences.

·      Archias is an egregious and most excellent man. [Cicero’s speech in 62 BCE]

·      “An egregious captain and most valiant soldier.” [Roger Ascham in 1545]

Up to about 16^th century, the word egregious had a positive meaning: excellent or outstanding. Cicero was defending Greek poet Aulus Licinius Archias’s request for Roman citizenship. Archias had left his country out of disgust for the corruption of its Seleucid rulers.

Ascham was speaking about the qualities of valiant soldiers when he used the adjective ‘egregious’ to mean ‘outstanding’.

In short, ‘egregious’ had a very positive meaning back in those days.

When the word reached Shakespeare, it began to evolve drastically. In Othello, Iago calls Roderigo “an egregious liar, a most pernicious slave.” The Bard gave a sarcastic colour to the word here. In Twelfth Night, Malvolio is called “an egregious ass.”

One more century later, the Shakespearean irony and sarcasm left the word and it became absolutely negative in meaning. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan about the “egregious folly and madness” of the English Civil War of the 1640s which made the philosopher flee his country and take shelter in France. Hobbes was disgusted particularly by the religious fanaticism of his compatriots. Four centuries later, we can speak about the egregious folly and madness of quite a lot of people all over the world! We haven’t grown up much, right?

I was reading the latest issue of The Week this morning when the word egregious triggered all these thoughts in my mind. The article was: The Sham Trial of Sheikh Hasina. The writer speaks about the “egregious errors” in the UN Human Rights Report against Sheikh Hasina and the kangaroo courts in Bangladesh which can make any egregious allegation against a leader and kill her. Some people have a peculiar knack for such deeds: eliminate inconvenient political figures. Since that’s nothing new in certain countries like Bangladesh, I stopped reading the article and started contemplating the word egregious: how words evolve and meanings transmute radically.

The adjective egregious was an honour once, and now it is an insult!

Shakespeare’s sarcasm and irony played not an insignificant role in the evolution of the meaning of egregious. Repeated irony can reshape truth. Repeated sarcasm can reshape history. As Prime Minister Modi said once, “Injustice done to those who made history by those who twisted history in the name of writing it is being corrected by ‘New India’.” Try and figure out how many ironies lie in that statement.

You may be more amused by another statement of the PM. “Those who cannot create history sometimes want to paint history in their own colours because they do not have the capacity to create history.” Ironies and sarcasm can be egregious too.

The ancient, original meaning of egregious meant outstanding. Standing out from the group. Not good really. When you rise above the flock, you become an outsider. You may even have to flee your country like Hobbes and Archias.

What if your country puts you behind bars for “standing out”? In 2023, India reported 5,272 “offences against the State.” In the previous year, that figure was 6,062. Anyone who “stands out” can be egregiously sent to jail under laws like UAPA and NSA. As Shashi Tharoor would say, the quest for conformity can translate into inconceivable injustice and unchecked power rises to tyranny sooner rather than later, posing an egregious affront to constitutional norms.

The story of ‘egregious’ teaches us that excellence and error can share the same stage.

[The illustration-image is generated by Gemini AI.]