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Reader question: Please explain “fits and starts” in this headline: Greenland loses ice in fits and starts. My comments: Greenland, the Arctic island covered mostly by an ice sheet, has been losing its ice partially due to global warming. Even though the process has been steady and continuing for some time, the amount of ice it loses each year is different and unpredictable. This year the ice melts rapidly. Next year, it melts slowly, so on and so forth. In other words, it happens in spurts, or at an irregular pace. “Fits” and “starts” are kind of tautological here. Tautological? That means the use of two words that are similar in meaning. Repetitive? Yes, that’s right. First, let’s take a look at “fit” and “start” individually. First, fit. The “fit” in fits and starts refers to a convulsion, a spasm, a tightening of a muscle in an uncontrollable way. As a medical condition, when some people experience a fit, they experience violent, involuntary muscular contractions in the limbs or the face. By extension, girls are given to having a fit of giggles. That’s when they burst into giggles and cannot stop laughing and shaking in the body. Likewise, people may fly into a fit of rage. That’s when they, say, hear something that makes them uncontrollably angry. To have a start, on the other hand, is to experience a sudden, also involuntary, shake in the body due to surprise or fear. Thieves and on-the-run criminals, for instance, may start at the sound of sirens from a police car in the street. That’s their fear of being caught working at the subconscious level, and they themselves may or may not notice it. | 
