honour (noun) high respect; a feeling of pride and pleasure from being shown such respect; a person or thing that brings credit; a thing conferred as a distinction. tribute (noun) an act, statement, or gift that is intended to show gratitude, respect, or admiration.

– Concise Oxford English Dictionary WE DON'T MEAN to split hairs. And neither, we take it, does Mr Vere Browne. It's just that the synonymity of honour and tribute does not rest with him as it does with us – and the English dictionary.

Someone has to tell the chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) that honour and tribute – no matter their various forms, or from whose mouths they are uttered – are one and the same.

There is simply no sense of difference between honouring Red Plastic Bag "as was reported in other parts of the Press" and "paying tribute, as we do, to one of the leading performers over the years".

You don't honour, but you pay tribute, Mr Browne?

Of course, we do not believe the NCF is that "stupid" to honour – or pay tribute to – "someone in competition at this time". We just think the foundation is wrong.

And no amount of bandying of words will put Mr Browne and crew right. It would have been better for the NCF to admit it had made a genuine slip and got on – less interrupted – with the people's festival.

And, wronger yet is Mr Browne's position that all the talk on the NCF's gaffe "is a nonsensical debate" not "worth pursuing". The implied suppression of views among artistic and creative minds may even be the biggest gaffe of the Crop-Over season.

Virtually every voice that has gone against the NCF's position on its "tribute" to RPB has made it crystal clear there is no animosity toward the calypso monarch; that there is the greatest of admiration and respect for him.

All that is being said is that the timing of the tribute to the maestro is inappropriate. So many people of like thinking cannot all be mistaken.

With reason falling on deaf ears then, we shall surely see today – barring a miracle – the NCF paying "tribute" to Red Plastic Bag, "someone in competition at this time". Sadly so!

Oh, we forgot to add another definition of honour, as given by the Concise Oxford: a clear sense of what is morally right.