Notes and Asides.(Letter to the Editor)

Dear Mr. Buckley: I respectfully note that you misused the word "uxorious" in your column entitled "Pardon Clinton !#*!," which appeared in the Feb. 5 issue. "Uxorious" applies to a man who is excessively fond of his wife, but in your column you erroneously apply it to a woman's fondness for her husband-specifically to Mrs. Clinton's supposed fondness for Mr. Clinton.

But I sympathize entirely with the impulse informing your use of the word. There should be a word that means "excessively fond of one's husband."

(Make no mistake: This observation is prompted simply by my sense of justice, and in no way reflects on my own husband, who is a prince among men!)

Indeed, I have long marveled that Gloria Steinem, Patricia Ireland & Co. have not exploited the fact that English provides a word for a man who is excessively fond of his wife, but no comparable word for a wife whose affection for her husband exceeds his deserts, the gentlemen who codified our language apparently having deemed such a situation to be beyond the realm of possibility.

But then, of course, they never met Bill Clinton.

Cordially,

Dr. Brenda Megerle