Dot Wordsworth

Heritage

The most overused word in supermarket fruit and veg departments

issue 23 May 2015

Benidorm has applied for World Heritage status. To achieve this, says Unesco, a site must have ‘outstanding universal value’ in one of ten natural or cultural categories. Perhaps Benidorm is ‘a masterpiece of human creative genius’ — clever to get all those people to go there on holiday.

Heritage is overdone now, especially as an adjective. I read something the other day about old buildings that I agreed with, except that the author had consistently called old buildings ‘heritage buildings’.

I can understand Waitrose selling ‘heritage’ champagne, but heritage non-vintage? Waitrose offers various lines in heritage apples (Adams Pearmain, Chivers Delight) and tomatoes (Coeur de Boeuf). It has even offered a selection of ‘Heirloom Tomatoes’. As soft produce, tomatoes do not seem the kind of thing to wait to inherit and then keep burnished on the sideboard.

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