Prince Philip, the duke of Edinburgh,
who has died aged 99, is said to have coined the word âdontopedalogyâ when speaking to the British General Dental Council in 1960. He described it as the âscience of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, which Iâve practised for many yearsâ.
In fact, whenever he dropped his latest clanger some Fleet Street papers delighted in dusting down and republishing their lists of âPrince Philipâs 100 biggest howlersâ.
Curiously, though, although he made scores of gaffes on his trips around the world with and without his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, he appears to have been relatively solecism-free during numerous royal visits to Northern Ireland and one royal visit to the Republic. Somehow in Ireland he curbed his noted tendency to bluntness and irascibility.