Sir, – My mother-in-law used “hoi polloi”, which means “the masses”, to refer to the elite class, passing this misuse on to her family. I wonder how Alison Healy (Diary, August 11th) picked up the same mistake? I suspect it’s widespread, perhaps coming from the sound of the phrase, which seems close to haughty taughty. I wonder if there’s an Irish Diary in the puzzle. – Yours, etc,
DAVID McCONNELL,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.