Costly Adjective

A DRUG FOR relieving the pain of arthritis has been ruled "too costly", as a Times headline has it. Bad news for sufferers. Meanwhile, I wonder if I'm alone in disliking the word "costly". It's a genteel, rather prissy sort of word, making me think of Mr Salteena's wonder at Bernard's "costly" finger-bowls, and the "small but costly crown" worn by the Prince of Wales.

Daisy Ashford meant not just that the crown was worth a lot of money; it was, as she would put it, sumpshous, and grand, which has little or nothing to do with the NHS. The Times's right word was, of course, "expensive", which was too long for the headline, as was "not cost-effective", the official expression for the drug. But "dear" would have fitted nicely.

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