CHARMAIN NAIDOO: I know spite when I see it, president Zuma
'Powerful men in charge of entire countries capable of hurting billions can cause spiteful suffering too'
spiteful ˈspʌɪtfʊl,ˈspʌɪtf(ə)l/ adjective showing or caused by malice "the teachers made spiteful little jokes about me" synonyms malicious, mean, nasty, cruel, unkind, unfriendly, snide, hurtful, wounding, barbed, cutting, hateful, ill-natured, bitter, venomous, poisonous, acid, hostile, rancorous, malevolent, evil-intentioned, baleful, vindictive, vengeful, vitriolic, vicious, splenetic, malign, malignant, biliousThe English language is peculiar: the bandage was wound around the wound; the farm was used to produce produce; the soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. You could come up with dozens of similar oddities of the English language. This week, the word SPITE engaged my imagination. Spite: a desire to hurt, annoy or offend someone. The noun implies malice of some sort, as does the adjective spiteful. There are no redeeming qualities of spite, nothing you can do to manoeuvre the concept, like a pretzel, into something more round edged; less hurtful and mean.And ...
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