Just this minute listening to former Chancellor Ken Clarke interviewed on the radio, and delighted to hear him getting his creditors and debitors mixed up, albeit only momentarily.

Even after all these years, I still have to stop and think about which of these words is which – is a debitor someone who I owe money, or someone who owes me money?  And so, whenever I come across these words in writing, they cause me a little hiccup, a little jolt a bit like driving over a speed bump, before I remember which is which and accelerate again.

As a result, figuring it’s probably the same for other people, I don’t like using these words at all when I’m writing.  I’d much rather spell it out in longhand – “people who owe you money” and “people you owe money to.”  But there (second Hamlet reference in this entry) is the rub.  The clearer form of words is five times longer.  Pursue clarity at the expense of brevity, and you’ll finish up with copy that’s readily understandable, but dauntingly long. 

OK, OK, in this case Polonius had the answer in the original line.  The words “borrower” and “lender” are a lot clearer than “debitor” and “creditor,” and not longer.  But there are thousands of occasions when this happy middle ground doesn’t exist.  As readers of this blog will be (painfully?) aware, I will pretty much always choose to write long and clear rather than brief and opaque.   But the trade-off still bothers me.  And I know that behind my back, people do say, “Oh yes, you can always recognise Lucian’s copy.  Always a good read. But my goodness, he does go on.”