The last word

Sometimes short words are the most interesting. Like the definite and indefinite articles, “the” and “a(n)” (see also BMJ 1999;318:1758 and 2000;321:953). Not for nothing does the Oxford English Dictionary devote four pages to the different forms and meanings of “the.”

When President Kennedy visited Berlin in June 1963 he made a famous speech in which he proclaimed that “All free men, wherever they may be, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’” Now had he …