Apart from the name of a famous chain of stores – at least one of which brightens the main street of every town in SA with its blue and gold heraldry – you don’t see the word “pep” much these days.

This is a pity, because pep is a staunch and compact word that punches way above its weight.

Pep deserves more airplay. Instead it has been declassified by grammar gurus as an archaism, left to gather dust on the shelves of antiquity...