My writing juices were flowing, and I was churning out sentences like one smooth operator for my short story. But it all came undone in a matter of a few paragraphs down the page:
Al was beginning to feel an ominous sense of unease. He had been doing drugs for a considerable time, but helping to prepare them for distribution on the streets was uncharted territory for him.
Then it struck me, What does "uncharted territory" really mean? Could "unchartered territory" make sense as well? It was one of those phrases I always came across but never really paid attention to. My old wretched habit creeping in, I simply had to get to the bottom of the matter before I could continue with my writing.
A quick search on how news sites were using this phrase netted mixed results, bringing me some comfort that I wasn't the only muddled one.
| This word muddle put me in uncharted/unchartered waters. |
It was off to my trusted Wordsmyth dictionary then to get a better sense of the respective meanings of "chartered" and "charted":
charter: a document issued by a government or other central authority, permitting the organization of a corporation, branch, or other subordinate body.
unchartered: not officially authorized by a legal charter.
chart: to make a map of or record the measurements of.Technically, it doesn't seem too far-fetched to fit a meaning into "unchartered territory", suggesting a place to be sort of unregulated or unrecognised by the authorities.
uncharted: not recorded on any map or chart; Unexplored or unknown, as some geographical area or field of research.
The online Collins Dictionary goes as far as to define the word as:
unchartered: unauthorized, lawless, or irregular
Such a definition would add more support for the use of "unchartered territory" to refer to some place dangerous, chaotic or menacing.
Yet the actual meaning of this phrase actually points back to an area or situation that is unexplored. To put it literally, it is a place not marked on a map, which could imply danger (though not necessarily so) since nothing is known about it. In this sense, "uncharted" aptly matches the original intention of the phrase.
Looking back at the way I applied the phrase into my story for the character Al's situation, I am not certain if it was entirely accurate. I seemed to suggest "lawlessness" in the "territory" I was referring to rather than "unexplored". After all, preparing drugs for distribution isn't something unprecedented or unexplored, and by no means "uncharted". Then again, would "uncharted territory" in this context be confined to his personal domain and experience, ie, it was unexplored or unknown to him?
To wade deeper, though, would be another step into uncharted waters for me.
