Quintessentially English

There is something about the adjective quintessentially, that can only be followed by the word English. In much the same way that collective nouns define groups of things, a charm of goldfinches, a murder of crows and so forth, there are adjectives that define nationalities. For example “bloody minded” can only ever describe Australians, “arrogant” can only describe the French, and the appropriate adjective for white south africans cannot be used in a polite blog like this, suffice it to say that the song “I’ve never met a nice South African” by the “Not the Nine O’Clock News” cast is entirely accurate, as is the new character created by Harry Enfield. I once went to Twickenham, to watch England play South Africa at Rugby Union (England won easily), when I availed myself of the lavatory facilities the entire room was full of small round gingery, furry things saying “bokka bokka bokka…”