In salons for writers, beware giving a black eye to literature

Students of words enjoy the way in which adjectives normally used to describe reprehensible actions are whitewashed to become terms of praise. One instance, which has caught my eye recently, is ‘aggressive’. In the past few days I have seen a firm’s brochure praising its ‘aggressive approach to the worldwide sale of megayachts’, a reference to a writer of semi-pornographic novels as ‘skilfully and slyly aggressive’ and a rising politician as ‘charming Congress with his verbal aggression’.

Such usage is not all that new. ‘Aggressive’ can be defined (OED meaning 2c) as self-assertive, pushful, energetic and enterprising. As far back as 1930, a Vancouver newspaper advertised for ‘an aggressive clothing salesman with ambition to manage a large store. Good salary.’ This did not mean, I think, a salesman of aggressive clothing, for such garments are rarely seen in Vancouver, a notably peaceable city, but of clothing in general. Freud pioneered the way in rehabilitating aggression.