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diff --git a/12524-0.txt b/12524-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..370d1e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/12524-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1356 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12524 *** + +_S.P.E._ + +_TRACT No. V_ + +THE ENGLISHING OF FRENCH WORDS + +By Brander Matthews + +THE DIALECTAL WORDS IN BLUNDEN'S POEMS + +etc. by Robert Bridges + + +_At the Clarendon Press_ MDCCCCXXI + + + + + + +FRENCH WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE + + +I + + +The English language is an Inn of Strange Meetings where all sorts and +conditions of words are assembled. Some are of the bluest blood and of +authentic royal descent; and some are children of the gutter not wise +enough to know their own fathers. Some are natives whose ancestors were +rooted in the soil since a day whereof the memory of man runneth not to +the contrary; and some are strangers of outlandish origin, coming to us +from all the shores of all the Seven Seas either to tarry awhile and +then to depart for ever, unwelcome sojourners only, or to settle down +at last and found a family soon asserting equality with the oldest +inhabitants of the vocabulary. Seafaring terms came to us from +Scandinavia and from the Low Countries. Words of warfare on land crossed +the channel, in exchange for words of warfare at sea which migrated from +England to France. Dead tongues, Greek and Latin, have been revived to +replenish our verbal population with the terms needed for the sciences; +and Italy has sent us a host of words by the fine arts. + +The stream of immigrants from the French language has been for almost a +thousand years larger than that from any other tongue; and even to-day +it shows little sign of lessening. Of all the strangers within our gates +none are more warmly received than those which come to us from across +the Straits of Dover. None are more swiftly able to make themselves +at home in our dictionaries and to pass themselves off as English. +At least, this was the case until comparatively recently, when the +process of adoption and assimilation became a little slower and more +than a little less satisfactory. Of late French words, even those long +domiciled in our lexicons, have been treated almost as if they were +still aliens, as if they were here on sufferance, so to speak, as if +they had not become members of the commonwealth. They were allowed to +work, no doubt, and sometimes even to be overworked; but they laboured +as foreigners, perhaps even more eagerly employed by the snobbish +because they were foreigners and yet held in disrepute by the more +fastidious because they were not truly English. That is to say, French +words are still as hospitably greeted as ever before, but they are now +often ranked as guests only and not as members of the household. + +Perhaps this may seem to some a too fanciful presentation of the case. +Perhaps it would be simpler to say that until comparatively recently a +foreign word taken over into English was made over into an English word, +whereas in the past two or three centuries there has been an evident +tendency to keep it French and to use it freely while retaining its +French pronunciation, its French accents, its French spelling, and its +French plural. This tendency is contrary to the former habits of our +language. It is dangerous to the purity of English. It forces itself +on our attention and it demands serious consideration. + + + +II + + +In his brief critical biography of Rutebeuf, M. Clédat pointed out that +for long years the only important literature in Europe was the French, +and that the French language had on three several occasions almost +established itself as the language of European civilization--once in the +thirteenth century, again in the seventeenth, and finally when Napoleon +had made himself temporarily master of the Continent. The earlier +universities of Europe were modelled on that of Paris, where Dante had +gone to study. Frederick the Great despised his native tongue, spoke it +imperfectly, and wrote his unnecessary verses in French. Even now French +is only at last losing its status as the accredited tongue of diplomacy. + +The French made their language in their own image; and it is therefore +logical, orderly, and clear. Sainte-Beuve declared that a 'philosophical +thought has probably not attained all its sharpness and all its +illumination until it is expressed in French'. As the French are noted +rather for their intelligence than for their imagination, they are the +acknowledged masters of prose; and their achievement in poetry is more +disputable. As they are governed by the social instinct, their language +exhibits the varied refinements of a cultivated society where +conversation is held in honour as one of the arts. The English speech, +like the English-speaking peoples, is bolder, more energetic, more +suggestive, and perhaps less precise. From no language could English +borrow with more profit to itself than from French; and from no language +has it borrowed more abundantly and more persistently. Many of the +English words which we can trace to Latin and through Latin to Greek, +came to us, not direct from Rome and Athens, but indirectly from Paris. +And native French words attain international acceptance almost as easily +as do scientific compounds from Greek and Latin. _Phonograph_ and +_telephone_ were not more swiftly taken up than _chassis_ and _garage_. + +But _chassis_ and _garage_ still retain their French pronunciation, or +perhaps it would be better to say they still receive a pronunciation +which is as close an approximation to that of the French as our +unpractised tongues can compass. And in thus taking over these French +words while striving to preserve their Frenchiness, we are neglectful +of our duty, we are imperilling the purity of our own language, and we +are deserting the wholesome tradition of English--the tradition which +empowered us to take at our convenience but to refashion what we had +taken to suit our own linguistic habits. + +'Speaking in general terms,' Mr. Pearsall Smith writes, in his outline +history of the English language, 'we may say that down to about 1650 the +French words that were borrowed were thoroughly naturalized in English, +and were made sooner or later to conform to the rules of English +pronunciation and accent; while in the later borrowings (unless they +have become very popular) an attempt is made to pronounce them in the +French fashion.' From Mr. Smith's pages it would be easy to select +examples of the complete assimilation which was attained centuries ago. +_Caitiff, canker_, and _carrion_ came to us from the Norman dialect of +French; and from their present appearance no one but a linguistic expert +would suspect their exotic ancestry, _Jury, larceny, lease, embezzle, +distress,_ and _improve_ have descended from the jargon of the lawyers +who went on thinking in French after they were supposed to be speaking +and writing in English. Of equal historical significance are the two +series of words which English acquired from the military vocabulary +of the French,--the first containing _company, regiment, battalion, +brigade, division_, and _army_; and the second consisting of _marshal, +general, colonel, major, captain, lieutenant, sergeant_, and _corporal_. + +(Here I claim the privilege of a parenthesis to remark that in Great +Britain _lieutenant_ is generally pronounced _leftenant_, than which no +anglicization could be more complete, whereas in the United States this +officer is called the _lootenant_, which the privates of the American +Expeditionary Force in France habitually shortened to '_loot_'--except, +of course, when they were actually addressing this superior. It may be +useful to note, moreover, that while 'colonel' has chosen the spelling +of one French form, it has acquired the pronunciation of another.) + +Dr. Henry Bradley in the _Making of English_ provides further evidence +of the aforetime primacy of the French in the military art. '_War_ +itself is a Norman-French word, and among the other French words +belonging to the same department which became English before the end of +the thirteenth century' are _armour, assault, banner, battle, fortress, +lance, siege, standard_, and _tower_--all of them made citizens of our +vocabulary, after having renounced their allegiance to their native +land. Another quotation from Dr. Bradley imposes itself. He tells us +that the English writers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries felt +themselves at liberty to introduce a French word whenever they pleased. +'The innumerable words brought into the language in this way are +naturally of the most varied character with regard to meaning. Many of +them, which supplied no permanent need of the language, have long been +obsolete.' + +This second sentence may well give us heart of hope considering the +horde of French terms which invaded our tongue in the long years of the +Great War. If _camion_ and _avion, vrille_ and _escadrille_ supply no +permanent need of the language they may soon become obsolete, just as +_mitrailleuse_ and _franc-tireur_ slipped out of sight soon after the +end of the Franco-Prussian war of fifty years ago. A French modification +of the American 'gatling' was by them called a _mitrailleuse_; +and nowadays we have settled down to the use of _machine-gun_. +A _franc-tireur_ was an irregular volunteer often incompletely +uniformed; and when he was captured the Prussians shot him as a +guerrilla. It will be a welcome relief if _camouflage_, as popular five +years ago as _fin-de-siècle_ twenty-five years ago, shall follow that +now unfashionable vocable into what an American president once described +as 'innocuous desuetude'. Perhaps we may liken _mitrailleuse_ and +_franc-tireur, vrille_ and _escadrille, brisance_ and _rafale_, to the +foreign labourers who cross the frontier to aid in the harvest and who +return to their own country when the demand for their service is over. + + + +III + + +The principle which ought to govern can be stated simply. English +should be at liberty to help itself freely to every foreign word which +seems to fill a want in our own language. It ought to take these words +on probation, so to speak, keeping those which prove themselves useful, +and casting out those which are idle or rebellious. And then those which +are retained ought to become completely English, in pronunciation, in +accent, in spelling, and in the formation of their plurals. No doubt +this is to-day a counsel of perfection; but it indicates the goal which +should be strived for. It is what English was capable of accomplishing +prior to the middle of the seventeenth century. It is what English may +be able to accomplish in the middle of the twentieth century, if we once +awaken to the danger of contaminating our speech with unassimilated +words, and to the disgrace, which our stupidity or laziness must bring +upon us, of addressing the world in a pudding-stone and piebald +language. Dr. Bradley has warned us that 'the pedantry that would bid +us reject the word fittest for our purpose because it is not of native +origin ought to be strenuously resisted'; and I am sure that he would +advocate an equally strenuous resistance to the pedantry which would +impose upon us words of alien tongue still clad in foreign uniform. + +Mark Twain once remarked that 'everybody talks about the weather and +nobody does anything about it'. And many people think that we might as +well hope to direct the course of the winds as to order the evolution +of our speech. Some words have proved intractable. In the course of the +past two centuries and a half, scores and even hundreds of French words +have domiciled themselves in English without relinquishing their French +characteristics. Consider the sad case of _élite_ (which Byron used a +hundred years ago), of _encore_ (which Steele used two hundred years +ago) of _parvenu_ (which Gifford used in 1802), of _ennui_ (which +Evelyn used in 1667), and of _nuance_ (which Walpole used in 1781). + +No one hesitates to accept these words and to employ them frequently. +_Ennui_ and _nuance_ are two words which cannot well be spared, but +which we are unable to reproduce in our native vocalization. Their +French pronunciation is out of the question. What can be done? Can +anything be done? We may at least look the facts in the face and govern +our own individual conduct by the results of this scrutiny. There is no +reason why we should not accept what is a fact; and it is a fact that +_ennui_ has been adopted. So long ago as 1805 Sidney Smith used it as a +verb and said that he had been _ennuied_. Why not therefore frankly and +boldly pronounce it as English--_ennwee_? Why not forswear French again +and pronounce _nuance_ without trying vainly to preserve the Gallic +nasality of the second n--_newance_? And as for a third necessary word, +_timbre_. I can only register here my complete concurrence with the +opinion expressed in Tract No. 3 of the Society for Pure English--that +the 'English form of the French sound of the word would be approximately +_tamber_; and this would be not only a good English-sounding word, like +_amber_ and _chamber_, but would be like our _tambour_, which is +_tympanum_, which again is _timbre_'. + +Why should not _séance_ (which was used by Charles Lamb in 1803) +drop its French accent and take an English pronunciation--_see-ance_? +Why should not _garage_ and _barrage_ rhyme easily with _marriage_? +_Marriage_ itself came to us from the French; and it sets a good example +to these two latest importations. Logic would suggest this, of course; +but then logic does not always guide our linguistic practices. And here, +again, I am glad to accept another suggestion which I find in Tract No. +3, that _naivety_ be recognized and pronounced as an English word, and +that 'a useful word like _malaise_ could with advantage reassume the +old form "malease" which it once possessed'. + +I have asked why these thoroughly acclimated French words should not +be made to wear our English livery; and to this question Dr. Bradley +supplied an answer when he declared that 'culture is one of the +influences which retard the process of simplification'. A man of culture +is likely to be familiar with one or more foreign languages; and perhaps +he may be a little vain of his intimacy with them. He prefers to give +the proper French pronunciation to the words which he recognizes as +French; and moreover as the possession of culture, or even of education, +does not imply any knowledge of the history of English or of the +principles which govern its growth, the men of culture are often +inclined to pride themselves on this pedantic procedure. + +It is, perhaps, because the men of culture in the United States are +fewer in proportion to the population that American usage is a little +more encouraging than the British. Just as we Americans have kept alive +not a few old words which have been allowed to drop out of the later +vocabulary of the United Kingdom, so we have kept alive--at least to a +certain extent--the power of complete assimilation. _Restaurant_, for +example, is generally pronounced as though its second syllable rhymed +with 'law', and its third with 'pant'. _Trait_ is pronounced in +accordance with its English spelling, and therefore very few Americans +have ever discovered the pun in the title of Dr. Doran's book, 'Table +Traits, and something on them'. I think that most Americans rhyme +_distrait_ to 'straight' and not to 'stray'. _Annexe_ has become +_annex_; _programme_ has become _program_--although the longer form +is still occasionally seen; and sometimes _coterie_ and _reverie_ are +'cotery' and 'revery'--in accord with the principle which long ago +simplified _phantasie_ to _fantasy_. _Charade_ like _marmalade_ rhymes +with _made_. _Brusk_ seems to be supplanting _brusque_ as _risky_ is +supplanting _risqué_. _Elite_ is spelt without the accent; and it is +frequently pronounced _ell-leet_. _Clôture_ is rarely to be discovered +in American newspapers; _closure_ is not uncommon; but the term commonly +employed is the purely English 'previous question'. + +In the final quarter of the nineteenth century an American adaptation of +a French comic opera, 'La Mascotte', was for two or three seasons very +popular. The heroine of its story was believed to have the gift of +bringing luck. So it is that Americans now call any animal which has +been adopted by a racing crew or by an athletic team (or even by a +regiment) a _mascot_; and probably not one in ten thousand of those who +use the word have any knowledge of its French origin, or any suspicion +that it was transformed from the title of a musical play. + +I regret, however, to be forced to confess that I have lately been +shocked by a piece of petty pedantry which seems to show that we +Americans are falling from grace--at least so far as one word is +concerned. Probably because many of our architects and decorators have +studied in Paris there is a pernicious tendency to call a 'grill' a +_grille_. And I have seen with my own eyes, painted on a door in an +hotel _grille_-room; surely the ultimate abomination of verbal +desolation! + +I may, however, record to our credit one righteous act--the perfect +and satisfactory anglicizing of a Spanish word, whereby we have made +'canyon' out of _cañon_. And I cannot forbear to adduce another word for +a fish soup, _chowder_, which the early settlers derived from the French +name of the pot in which it was cooked, _chaudière_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: No doubt all these variations of American from British +usage will be duly discussed in Professor George Philip Krapp's +forthcoming _History of the English Language in America_.] + + + +IV + + +As the military vocabulary of English is testimony to the former +leadership of the French in the art of war, so the vocabulary of fashion +and of gastronomy is evidence of the cosmopolitan primacy of French +millinery and French cookery. But most of the military terms were +absorbed before the middle of the seventeenth century and were therefore +assimilated, whereas the terms of the French dressmaker and of the +French cook, chef, or _cordon bleu_, are being for ever multiplied in +France and are very rarely being naturalized in English-speaking lands. +So far as these two sets of words are concerned the case is probably +hopeless, because, if for no other reason, they are more or less in the +domain of the gentler sex and we all know that + + 'A woman, convinced against her will, + Is of the same opinion still.' + + +The terms of the motor-car, however, and those of the airplane, are in +the control of men; and there may be still a chance of bringing about a +better state of affairs than now exists. While the war correspondents +were actually in France, and while they were often forced to write at +topmost speed, there was excuse for _avion_ and _camion, vrille_ and +_escadrille_, and all the other French words which bespattered the +columns of British and American, Canadian and Australian newspapers. +I doubt if there was ever any necessity for _hangar_, the shed which +sheltered the airplane or the airship. _Hangar_ is simply the French +word for 'shed', no more and no less; it does not indicate specifically +a shed for a flying-machine; and as we already had 'shed' we need not +take over _hangar_. + +When we turn from the gas-engine on wings to the gas-engine on wheels, +we find a heterogeny of words in use which bear witness to the fact that +the French were the first to develop the motor-car, and also to the +earlier fact that they had long been renowned for their taste and their +skill as coach-builders. As the terminology of the railway in England +is derived in part from that of the earlier stage-coach--in the United +States, I may interject, it was derived in part from that of the earlier +river-steamboat--so the terminology of the motor-car in France was +derived in part from that of the pleasure-carriage. So we have the +_landaulet_ and _limousine_ to designate different types of body. +I think _landaulet_ had already acquired an English pronunciation; at +least I infer this because I cannot now recall that I ever heard it fall +from the lips of an English-speaking person with its original French +pronunciation of the nasal _n_. And _limousine_, being without accent +and without nasal _n_ can be trusted to take care of itself. + +There are other technical terms of the motor-car industry which present +more difficult problems. _Tonneau_ is not troublesome, even if its +spelling is awkward. There is _chauffeur_ first of all; and I wish that +it might generally acquire the local pronunciation it is said to have in +Norfolk--_shover_. Then there is _chassis_. Is this the exact equivalent +of 'running gear'? Is there any available substitute for the French +word? And if _chassis_ is to impose itself from sheer necessity what +is to be done with it? Our forefathers boldly cut down _chaise_ to +'shay'--at least my forefathers did it in New England, long before +Oliver Wendell Holmes commemorated their victory over the alien in the +'Deacon's Masterpiece', more popularly known as the 'One Horse Shay'. +And the men of old were even bolder when they curtailed _cabriolet_ to +'cab', just as their children have more recently and with equal courage +shortened 'taximeter vehicle' to 'taxi', and 'automobile' itself to +'auto'. Unfortunately it is not possible to cut the tail off _chassis_, +or even to cut the head off, as the men of old did with 'wig', +originally 'periwig', which was itself only a daring and summary +anglicization of _peruke_. + +Due to the fact that the drama has been more continuously alive in the +literature of France than in that of any other country, and due also, +it may be, to the associated fact that the French have been more loyally +devoted to the theatre than any other people, the vocabulary of the +English-speaking stage has probably more unassimilated French words than +we can discover in the vocabulary of any of our other activities. We are +none of us surprised when we find in our newspaper criticisms _artiste, +ballet, conservatoire, comédienne, costumier, danseuse, début, +dénoûment, diseuse, encore, ingénue, mise-en-scène, perruquier, +pianiste, première, répertoire, revue, rôle, tragédienne_--the catalogue +stretches out to the crack of doom. + +Long as the list is, the words on it demand discussion. As to _rôle_ I +need say nothing since it has been considered carefully in Tract No. 3; +I may merely mention that it appeared in English at least as early as +1606, so that it has had three centuries to make itself at home in our +tongue. _Conservatoire_ and _répertoire_ have seemingly driven out the +English words, which were long ago made out of them, 'conservatory' +and 'repertory'. What is the accepted pronunciation of _ballet_? Is it +_bal-lett_ or _ballay_ or _bally_? (If it is _bally_, it has a recently +invented cockney homophone.) For _costumier_ and _perruquier_ I can see +no excuse whatever; although I have observed them frequently on London +play-bills, I am delighted to be able to say that they do not disgrace +the New York programmes, which mention the 'costumer' and the +'wigmaker'. 'Encore' was used by Steele in 1712; it was early made into +an English verb; and yet I have heard the verb pronounced with the nasal +_n_ of the original French. Here is another instance of English taking +over a French word and giving it a meaning not acceptable in Paris, +where the playgoers do not _encore_, they _bis_. + +Why should we call a nondescript medley of dialogue and dance and +song a _revue_, when _revue_ in French is the exact equivalent of +'review' in English? Why should we call an actress of comic characters +a _comédienne_ and an actress of tragic characters a _tragédienne_, +when we do not call a comic actor a _comédien_ or a tragic actor a +_tragédien_? Possibly it is because 'comedian' and 'tragedian' seem +to be too exclusively masculine--so that a want is felt for words to +indicate a female tragedian and a female comedian. Probably it is for +the same reason that a male dancer is not termed a _danseur_ while +a female dancer is termed a _danseuse_. Then there is _diseuse_, +apparently reserved for the lady who recites verse, no name being +needed apparently for the gentleman who recites verse--at least, I am +reasonably certain that I have never seen _diseur_ applied to any male +reciter. + +_Mise-en-scène_ is another of the French terms which has suffered a +Channel-change. In Paris it means the arrangement of the stage-business, +whereas in London and in New York it is employed rather to indicate the +elaboration of the scenery and of the spectacular accessories. An even +more extraordinary misadventure has befallen _pianiste_, in that it is +sometimes used as if it was to be applied only to a female performer. +And this blunder is of long standing; but I remember as lately as forty +years ago seeing an American advertisement of Teresa Carreño which +proclaimed her to be 'the greatest living _lady_ pianiste'. I have +also detected evidences of a startling belief of the illiterate that +_artiste_ is the feminine of 'artist'. Nevertheless I found recently in +a volume caricaturing the chief performers of the London music-halls a +foot-note which explained that these celebrities were therein entitled +_artistes_--because 'an artist creates, an _artiste_ performs'. + +Still to be analysed are _première_ for 'first performance' or 'opening +night' and _debut_ for 'first appearance'; and I fear that it is beyond +expectation that these alien words will speedily drop their alien +accents and their alien pronunciations. The same must be said also of +_dénoûment_ and of _ingénue_--French words which really fill a gap in +our vocabulary and which are none the less abhorrent to our speech +habits. The most that is likely to happen is that they may shed their +accents and more or less approximate an English pronunciation, +_dee-noo-meant_, perhaps, and _inn-je-new_, an approximation which will +be sternly resisted by the literate. I well remember one occasion when I +overheard scorn poured upon a charming American actress who had happened +to mention the date of her own _deb-you_ in New York. + + + +V + + +_Encore_ and _mise-en-scène_ are only two of a dozen or a score of +French words not infrequently used in English and misused by being +charged with meanings not strictly in accord with French usage. 'Levee' +is one; the French say _lever_. _Nom de plume_ is another; the French +say _nom de guerre_. _Musicale_ also is rarely, if ever, to be found +in French, at least I believe it to be the custom in Paris to call +an 'evening with music' a _soirée musicale_. If _musicale_ is too +serviceable to demand banishment, why should it not drop the _e_ and +become _musical_? When Theodore Roosevelt, always as exact as he was +vigorous in his use of language, was President of the United States, the +cards of invitation which went out from the White House bore 'musical' +in one of their lower corners; so that the word, if not the King's +English, is the President's English. + +To offset this I must record with regret that the late Clyde Fitch once +wrote a one-act play about a manicurist, and as this operator on the +finger-nails was a woman he entitled his playlet, the _Manicuriste_; and +he did this in spite of the fact that, as a writer fairly familiar with +French, he ought to have known the proper term--_manucure_. + +Then there is _double-entendre_, implying a secondary meaning of +doubtful delicacy. Dryden used it in 1673, when it was apparently +good French, although it has latterly been superseded in France by +_double-entente_--which has not, however, the somewhat sinister +suggestion we attach to _double-entendre_. I noted it in Trench's +'Calderon' (in the 1880 reprint); and also in Thackeray; and both +Calderon and Thackeray were competent French scholars. + +Perhaps this is as good a place as any to consider _née_, put after the +name of a married woman and before the family name of her father. The +Germans have a corresponding usage, Frau Schmidt, _geboren_ Braun. There +is no doubt that _née_ is convenient, and there is little doubt that +it would be difficult to persuade the men of culture to surrender it +or even to translate it. To the literate 'Mrs. Smith, born Brown', +might seem discourteously abrupt. But the French word is awkward, +nevertheless, since the illiterate often take it as meaning only +'formerly', writing 'Mrs. Smith, _née_ Mary Brown', which implies that +this lady had been christened before she was born. And there is a tale +of a profiteer's wife who wrote herself down as 'Mrs. John Smith, New +York, _née_ Chicago'. + +Yet the French themselves are not always scrupulous to follow _née_ with +only the family name of the lady. No less a scholar than Gaston Paris +dedicated his _Poètes et Penseurs_ to 'Madame James Darmesteter, _née_ +Mary Robinson'. Perhaps this is an instance of the modification of the +strict meaning of a word by convention because of its enlarged +usefulness when so modified. + +Gaston Paris must be allowed all the rights and privileges of a master +of language; but his is a dangerous example for the unscholarly, who are +congenitally careless and who are responsible for _soubriquet_ instead +of _sobriquet_, for _à l'outrance_ instead of _à outrance_, and for _en +déshabille_ instead of _en déshabillé_. The late Mrs. Oliphant in her +little book on Sheridan credited him with _gaieté du coeur_. It was +long an American habit to term a railway station a _dépot_ (totally +anglicized in its pronunciation--_deep-oh)_; but _dépôt_ is in French +the name for a storehouse, and it is not--or not customarily--the name +of a railway station. It was also a custom in American theatres to give +the name of _parquette_-seats to the chairs which are known in England +as 'stalls'; and in village theatres _parquette_ was generally +pronounced 'par-kay'. + +There are probably as many in Great Britain as in the United States +who speak the French which is not spoken by the French themselves. +Affectation and pretentiousness and the desire to show off are abundant +in all countries. They manifest themselves even in Paris, where I once +discovered on a bill of fare at the Grand Hotel _Irisch-stew à la +française_. This may be companioned by a bill of fare on a Cunard +steamer plying between Liverpool and New York, whereon I found myself +authorized to order _tartletes_ and _cutletes_. When I called the +attention of a neighbour to these outlandish vocables, the affable +steward bent forward to enlighten my ignorance. 'It's the French, +sir,' he explained; '_tartlete_ and _cutlete_ is French.' + +That way danger lies; and when we are speaking or writing to those who +have English as their mother-tongue there are obvious advantages in +speaking and writing English, with no vain effort to capture Gallic +graces. Readers of Mark Twain's _Tramp Abroad_ will recall the scathing +rebuke which the author administered to his agent, Harris, because a +report which Harris had submitted was peppered, not only with French and +German words, but also with savage plunder from Choctaw and Feejee and +Eskimo. Harris explained that he intruded these hostile verbs and nouns +to adorn his page, and justified himself by saying that 'they all do +it. Everybody that writes elegantly'. Whereupon Mark Twain, whose own +English was as pure as it was rich and flexible, promptly read Harris a +needed lesson: 'A man who writes a book for the general public to read +is not justified in disfiguring his pages with untranslated foreign +expressions. It is an insolence toward the majority of the purchasers, +for it is a very frank and impudent way of saying, "Get the translations +made yourselves if you want it--this book is not written for the +ignorant classes".... The writer would say that he uses the foreign +language where the delicacy of his point cannot be conveyed in English. +Very well, then, he writes his best things for the tenth man, and he +ought to warn the other nine not to buy his book.' + +The result of these straight-forward and out-spoken remarks is set +forth by Mark Twain himself: 'When the musing spider steps upon the +red-hot shovel, he first exhibits a wild surprise, then he shrivels +up. Similar was the effect of these blistering words upon the tranquil +and unsuspecting agent. I can be dreadfully rough on a person when the +mood takes me.' + + + +VI + + +This sermon might have been made even broader in its application. It is +not always only the ignorant who are discommoded by a misguided reliance +on foreign words as bestowers of elegance; it is often the man of +culture, aware of the meaning of the alien vocable but none the less +jarred by its obtrusion on an English page. The man of culture may have +his attention disturbed even by a foreign word which has long been +acclimatized in English, if it still retains its unfriendly appearance. +I suppose that _savan_ has established its citizenship in our +vocabulary; it is, at least, domiciled in our dictionaries[2]; but when +I found it repeated by Frederic Myers, in _Science and a Future Life_, +to avoid the use of 'scientist', the French word forced itself on me, +and I found myself reviving a boyish memory of a passage in Abbott's +_Life of Napoleon_ dealing with Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt and +narrating the attacks of the Mamelukes, when the order was given to +form squares with '_savans_ and asses in the center'. + +An otherwise fine passage of Ruskin's has always been spoilt for me by +the wilful incursion of two French words, which seem to me to break the +continuity of the sentence: 'A well-educated gentleman may not know many +languages; may not be able to speak any but his own; may have read very +few books. But whatever language he knows, he knows precisely; whatever +word he pronounces, he pronounces rightly; above all, he is learned in +the peerage of words; knows the words of true descent and ancient blood +at a glance from words of modern _canaille_; remembers all their +ancestry, their intermarriages, distantest relationships, and the extent +to which they were admitted, and offices they hold, among the national +_noblesse_ of words, at any time and in any country.' Are not _canaille_ +and _noblesse_ distracting? Do they not interrupt the flow? Do they not +violate what Herbert Spencer aptly called the Principle of Economy of +Attention, which he found to be the basis of all the rules of rhetoric? + +Since I have made one quotation from Ruskin, I am emboldened to make two +from Spencer, well known as his essay on 'Style' ought to be:--'A reader +or listener has at each moment but a limited amount of mental power +available. To recognize and interpret the symbols presented to him, +requires part of his power; to arrange and combine the images suggested +requires a further part; and only that part which remains can be used +for realizing the thought conveyed. Hence, the more time and attention +it takes to receive and understand each sentence, the less time and +attention can be given to the contained idea; and the less vividly will +that idea be conceived.'--'Carrying out the metaphor that language is +the vehicle of thought, there seems reason to think that in all cases +the friction and inertia of the vehicle deduct from its efficiency; and +that in composition, the chief, if not the sole thing to be done, is to +reduce this friction and inertia to the smallest possible amount.' + +_Savan_ and _canaille_ and _noblesse_ may be English words; but they +have not that appearance. They have not rooted themselves in English +earth as _war_ has, for instance, and _cab_ and _wig_. To me, for one, +they increase the friction and the inertia; and yet, of course, the +words themselves are not strange to me; they seem to me merely out of +place and in the way. I can easily understand why Myers and Ruskin +wanted them, even needed them. It was because they carried a meaning not +easily borne by more obvious and more hackneyed nouns. 'The words of our +mother tongue', said Lowell in his presidential address to the Modern +Language Association of America, 'have been worn smooth by so often +rubbing against our lips and our minds, while the alien word has all the +subtle emphasis and beauty of some new-minted coin of ancient Syracuse. +In our critical estimates we should be on our guard against its charm.' + +Since I have summoned myself as a witness I take the stand once more to +confess that Alan Seeger's lofty lyric, 'I have a rendezvous with Death' +has a diminished appeal because of the foreign connotations of +'rendezvous'. The French noun was adopted into English more than three +centuries ago; and it was used as a verb nearly three centuries ago; it +does not interfere with the current of sympathy when I find it in the +prose of Scott and of Mark Twain. Nevertheless, it appears to me +unfortunate in Seeger's noble poem, where it forces me to taste its +foreign flavour. + +Another French word, _bouquet_, is indisputably English; and yet when I +find it in Walt Whitman's heartfelt lament for Lincoln, 'O Captain, my +Captain', I cannot but feel it to be a blemish:-- + + 'For you _bouquets_ and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shore's a-crowding, + For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.' + + +It may be hypercriticism on my part, but _bouquet_ strikes me as sadly +infelicitous; and a large part of its infelicity is due to its having +kept its French spelling and its French pronunciation. It is not in +keeping; it diverts the flow of feeling; it is almost indecorous--much +as a quotation from Voltaire in the original might be indecorous in a +funeral address delivered by an Anglican bishop in a cathedral. + +[Footnote 2: _Savan_ is quite obsolete in British use, and is not in the +_Century Dictionary_ or in Webster, 1911. _Savant_ is common, and often +written without italics, but the pronunciation is never +anglicized.--H.B.] + + + +VII + + +There are several questions which writers and speakers who give thought +to their expressions will do well to ask themselves when they are +tempted to employ a French word or indeed a word from any alien tongue. +The first is the simplest: Is the foreign word really needed? For +example, there is no benefit in borrowing _impasse_ when there exists +already in English its exact equivalent, 'blind-alley', which carries +the meaning more effectively even to the small percentage of readers or +listeners who are familiar with French. Nor is there any gain in +_résumé_ when 'summary' and 'synopsis' and 'abstract' are all available. + +The second question is perhaps not quite so simple: Is the French word +one which English has already accepted and made its own? We do not +really need _questionnaire_, since we have 'interrogatory', but if we +want it we can make shift with 'questionary'; and for _concessionnaire_ +we can put 'concessionary'. To balance 'employer' there is 'employee', +better by far than _employé_, which insists on a French pronunciation. +Matthew Arnold and Lowell, always apt and exact in their use of their +own tongue, were careful to prefer the English 'technic' to the French +_technique_, which is not in harmony with the adjectives 'technical' and +_polytechnic_. So 'clinic' seems at last to have vanquished its French +father _clinique_, as 'fillet' has superseded _filet_; and now that +'valet' has become a verb it has taken on an English pronunciation. + +Then there is _littérateur_. If a synonym for 'man of letters' is +demanded why not find it in 'literator', which Lockhart did not +hesitate to employ in the _Life of Scott_. It is pleasant to believe +that _communard_, which was prevalent fifty years ago after the burning +of the Tuileries, has been succeeded by 'communist' and that its +twin-brother _dynamitard_ is now rarely seen and even more rarely heard. +Perhaps some of the credit may be due to Stevenson, who entitled his +tale the _Dynamiter_ and appended a foot-note declaring that 'any +writard who writes _dynamitard_ shall find in me a never-resting +fightard'. + +The third question may call for a little more consideration: Has the +foreign word been employed so often that it has ceased to be foreign +even though it has not been satisfactorily anglicized in spelling and +pronunciation? In the _Jungle Book_ Mr. Kipling introduces an official +who is in charge of the 'reboisement' of India; and in view of the +author's scrupulosity in dealing with professional vocabularies we may +assume that this word is a recognized technical term, equivalent to the +older word 'afforestation'. What is at once noteworthy and praiseworthy +is that in Mr. Kipling's page it does not appear in italics. And in +Mr. Pearsall Smith's book on the English language one admiring reader +was pleased to find 'débris' also without italics, although with the +retention of the French accent. Perhaps the time is not far distant +when the best writers will cease to stigmatize a captured word with +the italics which are a badge of servitude and which proclaim that it +has not yet been enfranchised into our language. + +The fourth question is the most perplexing: If the formerly foreign +word has been taken over and if it can therefore be utilized without +hesitancy, can it be made to form its plural in accord with the customs +of English. Here those who seek to make the English language truly +English and to keep it truly pure, will meet with sturdy resistance. +It will not be easy to persuade the literate, the men of culture, to +renounce the _x_ at the end of _beaux_ and _bureaux_ and to spell these +plurals 'beaus' and 'bureaus'. And yet no one doubts that 'beau' and +'bureau' have both won the right to be regarded as having attained an +honourable standing in our language. + + + +VIII + + +'De Quincey once said that authors are a dangerous class for any +language'--so Professor Krapp has reminded us in his book on _Modern +English_, and he has explained that De Quincey meant 'that the literary +habit of mind is likely to prove dangerous for a language ... because it +so often leads a speaker or writer to distrust natural and unconscious +habit, even when it is right, and to put in its stead some conscious +theory of literary propriety. Such a tendency, however, is directly +opposed to the true feeling for idiomatic English. It destroys the sense +of security, the assurance of perfect congruity between thought and +expression, which the unliterary and unacademic speaker and writer often +has, and which, with both literary and unliterary, is the basis for all +expressive use of language'. + +And since I have borrowed the quotation from Professor Krapp I shall +bring this rambling paper to an end by borrowing another, from the +_Toxophilus_ of Roger Ascham (1545). + +'He that will wryte well in any tongue must folowe this council of +Aristotle, to speake as the common people do, to think as wise men do. +Many English writers have not done so, but using straunge wordes as +latin, french, and Italian, do make all things darke and harde. Once I +communed with a man whiche reasoned the englyshe tongue to be enryched +and encreased thereby, sayinge--Who wyll not prayse that feaste where a +man shall drinke at a diner bothe wyne, ale and beere? Truly, quod I +they all be good, every one taken by hym selfe alone, but if you put +Malmesye and sacke, read wine and whyte, ale and beere, and al in one +pot, you shall make a drynke neyther easie to be knowen nor yet holsom +for the body.' + +BRANDER MATTHEWS. + + + + +NOTES + + +The word #laches#, which is not noticed in the above paper, is one +of a list of words sent to us by a correspondent who suggests that +it is the business of our society to direct the public as to their +pronunciation. Like other examples given by Mr. Matthews, _laches_ seems +to be at present in an uncertain condition; and as it is used only by +lawyers they will be able to decide its future. What seems clear about +it is that the two contending pronunciations are homophones, one with +_latches_ the other with _lashes_. The A having been Englished its +closing T seems natural; and _latches_ (from _lachesse_) is thus an +exact parallel with _riches_ (from _richesse_). But there seems no +propriety in the SS being changed to Z. The pronunciation _látchess_ +would save it from its awkward and absurd homophone _latches_, and would +be in order with _prowess, largess, noblesse_, &c. Moreover, since +_laches_ is used only as the name of a quality (= negligence) and never +(like _riches_), as a plural, to connote special acts of negligence, the +pronunciation _latchess_ would be correct as well as convenient; and the +word would be better spelt with double S: _lachess_. + +Of the word #levee# the _O.E.D._ says, 'All our verse quotations +place the stress on the first syllable. In England this is the court +pronunciation, and prevails in educated use. The pronunciation' with the +accent on the second syllable 'which is given by Walker, is occasionally +heard in Great Britain, and appears to be generally preferred in the +U.S.', but the dictionary does not quote Burns + + 'Guid-mornin' to your Majesty! + May Heav'n augment your blisses, + On ev'ry new birthday ye see, + A humble poet wishes! + My bardship here, at your levee, + On sic a day as this is, + Is sure an uncouth sight to see, + Amang thae birthday dresses + Sae fine this day.' + + +So that it would seem that the Scotch and American pronunciation of this +word is more thoroughly Englished than our own: and the prejudice which +opposes straightforward common-sense solutions, however desirable they +may be, is brought home to us by the fact that almost all Englishmen +would be equally shocked by the notion either of spelling this word as +they pronounce it, _levay_, or of pronouncing it, like Burns, as they +spell it, _levee_. + + + + +ENGLISH WORDS IN FRENCH + + +It would be instructive if we could give a parallel account of what the +French do when they adopt an English word into their language. _Le +Dictionnaire des Anglicismes_, lately published by Delagrave, has two +hundred pages, and is much praised by a reviewer in the _Mercure de +France_, Feb. 15, p. 246: but it does not give the current French +pronunciations of the English words. The reviewer writes: 'Ce qui me +gène bien davantage, c'est que M. Bonnaffé supprime, partout, avec +rigueur, la façon française de prononcer le mot anglais. Était-il +superflu de dire comment nous articulons _shampooing_? Nous n'avons, je +crois, qu'une forme orale pour _boy_, petit domestique, parce qu'il est +dû à l'oreille; mais nous sommes partagés quant à _boy-scout_, qui est +arrivé par tracts et par journaux. L'anglais donne un mot _high-life_, +le français en fait cinq: _haylayf, aïlaïf, ichlif, ijlif, iglif_.' +p. 247. It would seem from _high-life_ that English words in French +sometimes look as strange as French words do when represented in +make-shift English phonetics. On p. 228 of the same _Mercure_ there is +notice of 'un petit manuel de conversation' in which 'Toutes les nuances +de la "phonetic pronunciation" sont notées, à l'usage des Américains +désireux de se faire comprendre en français. Cette notation (says the +reviewer) m'a tellement amusé que je ne puis résister au plaisir +d'en citer quelques exemples: Av-nü' day Shawn Zay-lee-zay', +Plass de la Kown-kord' to Plass der lay-twal. Fown-ten day +Zeen-noh-sawn,--Oh-pay-râ Kum-meek,--Foh-lee Bair-zhair,--Bool-vâr +day Kâ-pu-seen,--Beeb-lee-oh-tech Sant Zhun-vee-ayv',--Lay +Zan-vâ-leed,--May-zown' der Veck-tor' U-goh',--Hub-bay-leesk',--Rü +San Tawn-twan, &c., &c....' There would seem to be errors in this +'citation'. Vecktor should be Veektor? and H looks like a misprint +for L in Hub-bay-leesk. -tech was probably -teck. Bonnaffé's book +is noticed in _The Modern Language Review_ of last January. + + + + +ON THE DIALECTAL WORDS IN EDMUND BLUNDEN'S POEMS[3] + +[Footnote 3: _The Waggoner and other Poems_, by Edmund Blunden, pp. 70. +Sidgwick and Jackson. London, 1920.] + + +In the original prospectus of the S.P.E., reprinted in Tract I, and +again in III, p. 9, one of the objects of the Society is stated to be +the 'enrichment and what is called regeneration of the language from the +picturesque vocabularies of local vernaculars'. Since a young poet, Mr. +Edmund Blunden, has lately published a volume in which this particular +element of dialectal and obsolescent words is very prominent, it will be +suitable to our general purpose to consider it as a practical experiment +and examine the results. The poetic diction and high standard of his +best work give sufficient importance to this procedure; and though he +may seem to be somewhat extravagant in his predilection for unusual +terms, yet his poetry cannot be imagined without them, and the strength +and beauty of the effects must be estimated in his successes and not in +his failures. + +In the following remarks no appreciation of the poetry will be +attempted: our undertaking is merely to tabulate the 'new' words, +and examine their fitness for their employment. The bracketed numbers +following the quotations give the page of the book where they occur. +The initials _O.E.D._ and _E.D.D._ stand for the _Oxford English +Dictionary_ and the _English Dialect Dictionary_ (Wright). + + 1. 'And churning owls and goistering daws'. (1) + + +Here _churning_ is a mistake; we are sorry to begin with an +animadversion, but the word should be _churring_. #Churr# is an +echo-word, and though there may be examples of echo-words which have +been bettered by losing all trace of their simple spontaneous origin, +this is not one. It is like _burr, purr,_ and _whirr_; and these words +are best spelt with double R and the R should be trilled. The absurdity +of not trilling this final R is seen very plainly in _burr_, because +that word's definition is 'a rough sounding of the letter R.' This is +not represented by the pronunciation b[schwa]:. What that 'southern +English' pronunciation does indicate is the vulgarity and inconvenience +of its degradations. _Burr_ occurs in these poems: + + 'There the live dimness burrs with droning glees'. (23) + +#Burr# is, moreover, a bad homophone and cannot neglect possible +distinctions: the Oxford Dictionary has eight entries of substantives +under _burr._ + +Our author also uses _whirr_: + + 'And the bleak garrets' crevices + Like whirring distaffs utter dread', (26) + + +and again of the noise of wind in ivy, on p. 54, and + + 'The damp gust makes the ivy whir', (48) + + +_whir_ rhyming here with _executioner_. + +Since _churring_ (in the first quotation) would automatically preserve +its essential trill, the intruder _churning_ is the more obnoxious; and +unless the R can be trilled it would seem better for poets to use only +the inflected forms of these words, and prefer _churreth_ to _churrs_. + +If _churn_ is anywhere dialectal for _churr_, it must have come from the +common mistake of substituting a familiar for an unknown word: and this +is the worst way of making homophones. + + 2. 'goistering daws'. + + +#Goister# or #gauster# is a common dialect verb; the latter +form seems the more common and is recognized in the Oxford Dictionary, +where it is defined 'to behave in a noisy boisterous fashion ... in some +localities to laugh noisily'. If jackdaws are to appropriate a word to +describe their behaviour, no word could be better than _goistering_, and +we prefer _goister_ to _gauster_. Its likeness to _boisterous_ will +assist it, and we guess that it will be accepted. In the little glossary +at the end of the book _goistering_ is explained as _guffawing_. That +word is not so descriptive of the jackdaw, since it suggests 'coarse +bursts of laughter', and the coarseness is absent from the fussy +vulgarity and mere needless jabber of the daw. + + 3. 'A dor flew by with crackling cry'. (7) + + +This to the ear is + + 'A daw flew by with crackling cry'; + + +and though our poet's glossary tells us that dor = dor-hawk or nightjar, +it really is not so. A dor is a beetle so called from its making a +_dorring_ noise, and the name, like _churr_ and _burr_, is better with +its double R and trill. _Dor-hawk_ may be a name for the _nightjar_, but +properly _dorr_ is not; and if it were, it would be forbidden by _daw_ +so long as it neglected its trill. Note also the misfortune that four +lines below we read + + 'The pigeons flaunted round his door', + + +where the full correct pronunciation of _door_ (d[open o][schwa]) will +not quite protect it. The whole line quoted from p. 7 is obscure, +because a nightjar would never be recognized by the description of a +bird that utters a crackling cry when flying. That it then makes a sound +different from its distinctive whirring note is recorded. T.A. Coward +writes 'when on the wing it has a soft call co-ic, and a sharper and +repeated alarm quik, quik, quik.' It is doubtful whether _crackling_ can +be accepted. + + 4. 'The grumping miller picked his way'. (8) + + +#Grumping# is a good word, which appears from the dictionaries to +be a common-speech term that is picking its way into literature. + + 5. 'The golden nobs and pippens swell'. (12) + + +#nob# is _knob_. Golden-nob is 'a variety of apple'; see _E.D.D._: +and as a special name, which the passage implies, it should be hyphened. + + 6. 'where the pollards frown, + Notched, dumb, surly images of pain'. (13) + + +#Notched.# This word well describes the appearance of old pollard +willows after they have been cropped; but its full propriety may escape +notice. A very early use of the verb _to notch_ was to cut or crop the +hair roughly, and _notched_ was so used. The Oxford Dictionary quotes +Lamb, 'a notched and cropt scrivener'. Then _pollard_ itself is from +_poll_, and means an animal that has lost its horns as well as a tree +that has been 'pollarded'. + + 7. 'In elver-peopled crevices'. (19) + + +We are grateful for #elver#. This form has carefully differentiated +itself from _eel-fare_, which means the passage of the young eels up the +rivers, and has come to mean the _eel-fry_ themselves. + + 8. 'For Sussex cries from primrose lags and breaks'. (22) + + +_E.D.D._, among many meanings of #lag#, explains this as a Sussex +and Somerset term for 'a long marshy meadow usually by the side of a +stream'. Since the word seems as if it might be used for anything +somewhere, we cannot question its title to these meadows, but we doubt +its power to retain possession, except in some favoured locality. + + 9. 'And chancing lights on willowy waterbreaks'. (22) + + +We have to guess what a _waterbreak_ is, having found no other example +of the word. + + 10. 'Of hobby-horses with their starting eyes'. (23) + + +#Hobby-horse# as a local or rustic name for dragon-fly can have no +right to general acceptance. + + 11. 'Stolchy ploughlands hid in grief.' (24) + + +#Stolchy# is so good a word that it does not need a dictionary. +Wright gives only the verb _stolch_ 'to tread down, trample, to walk in +the dirt'. The adjective is therefore primarily applicable to wet land +that has become sodden and miry by being _poached_ by cattle, and then +to any ground in a similar condition. Since _poach_ is a somewhat +confused homophone, its adjective _poachy_ has no chance against +_stolchy_. + + 12. 'I whirry through the dark'. (24) + + +#Whirry# is another word that explains itself, and perhaps the more +readily for its confusion (in this sense) with _worry_, see _E.D.D._ +where it is given as adjective and verb, the latter used by Scott in +'Midlothian'. 'Her and the gude-man will be whirrying through the +blue lift on a broom-shank.' In the _Century Dictionary_, with its +pronunciation hwér'i, it is described as dialectal form of _whirr_ or +of _hurry_, to fly rapidly with noise, also transitive to hurry. + + 13. 'No hedger brished nor scythesman swung'. (25) + + +and + + 'The morning hedger with his brishing-hook'. (62) + + +These two lines explain the word #brish#. _O.E.D._ gives _brish_ as +dialectal of _brush_, and so _E.D.D._ has the verb _to brush_ as dialect +for trimming a tree or hedge. Brush is a difficult homophone, and it +would be useful to have one of its derivative meanings separated off +as _brish_. + + 14. 'A hizzing dragonfly that daps + Above his mudded pond'. (28) + + +#Hizzing# is an old word now neglected. Shakespeare has + + 'To have a thousand with red burning spits + Come hizzing in upon 'em'.--_Lear_, III. vi. 17. + + +and there are other quotations in _O.E.D._ + + +15. #Dap# is used again, 'the dapping moth'. (45.) This word is +well known to fishermen and fowlers, meaning 'to dip lightly and +suddenly into water' but is uncommon in literature. + + + 16. 'The glinzy ice grows thicker through'. (28) + + +Author's glossary explains #glinzy# as slippery. _E.D.D._ gives +this word as _glincey_ and derives from French _glincer_ as _glisser_, +to slide or glide. _Glinzy_ and _glincey_ carry unavoidable suggestion +of _glint_. Compare the words in No. 19. _Glissery_ would be convincing. + + 17. 'The green east hagged with prowling storm'. (30) + + +In _O.E.D._ #hagged# is given as monopolized by the sense of +'bewitched', or of 'lean and gaunt', related to haggard. This does not +suit. The intention is probably an independent use of the p.p. of the +transitive verb 'to hag'; defined as 'to torment or terrify as a hag, +to trouble as the nightmare'. + + 18. 'where with the browsing thaive'. (31) + + +#Thaive# is a two-year-old ewe. Wright gives _theave_ or _theeve_ +as the commoner forms, and in the Paston letters it is _theyve_, which +perhaps confirms _thaive_, rhymed here with 'rave'. Certainly it is most +advisable to avoid _thieves_, the plural of thief, although _O.E.D._ +allows this pronunciation and indeed puts it first of the alternatives. + + 19. 'On the pathway side ... the glintering flint'. (32) + +_O.E.D_. gives #glinter# as a 'rare' word. We have _glinting, +glistening, glittering_, and _glistering_, and Scotch _glisting_. + + 20. 'The wind tangs through the shattered pane'. (34) + + +Echo-words, like ting-tang, ding-dong, &c., must have their liberty; but +of #tang# it should be noted that, though the verb may raise no +inconvenience, yet the substantive has a very old and well-established +use in the sense of a projecting point or barb (especially of metal), or +sting, and that this demands respect and recognition. It is something +less than prong, and is the proper word for the metal point that fixes +the strap of a buckle. The homophonic ambiguity is notorious in +Shakespeare's + + 'She had a tongue with a tang', + + +where, as the _O.E.D._ suggests, the double sense of sting and ring were +perhaps intended. + + 21. 'The grutching pixies hedge me round'. (37) + + +_Grudge_ and #grutch# are the same word. The use of the obsolete +form would therefore be fanciful if there were no difference in the +sense; but there is a useful distinction: because grudge has entirely +lost its original sense of murmuring, making complaint, and is confined +to the consciousness and feeling of discontent, whereas _grutch_ is +recognized as carrying the old meaning of grumble. Thus Stevenson as +quoted in _O.E.D._, 'The rest is grunting and grutching'. It is a very +useful word to restore, but it may, perhaps, at this particular time +find _grouse_ rather strongly entrenched. + + 22. 'Where the channering insect channels'. (46) + + +This is, of course, our old friend + + The cock doth craw, the day doth daw, + The channerin' worm doth chide', + + +and it looks like an attempt to define what is there meant, viz. that +the worm made a #channering# noise in burrowing through the wood. +The notion is perhaps admissible, though we cannot believe the sound to +be audible. + + 23. 'The lispering aspens'. (53) + + +#Lispering.# We should be grateful for this word. _O.E.D._ quotes +it from Clare's poems. + + 24. 'Of shallows with the shealings chalky white'. (64) + + +#Sheal# is a homophone, 1. a shepherd's hut or shanty; 2. a peascod +or seed-shell. Of the first, _shiel_ and _shieling_ are common forms; +the second is dialectal; _E.D.D._ gives #shealing# as the husk of +seeds. If this be the meaning in our quotation, the appearance described +is unrecognized by the present annotator. + + 25. 'Dull streams + Flow flagging in the undescribed deep fourms + Of creatures born the first of all, long dead'. (67) + + +#Fourm#, explained as a 'hare's lurking place', commonly called +_form_, widely used and understood because the lair has the shape or +form of the animal that lay in it. But perhaps it was originally only +the animal's seat or form, as we use the word in schools. _Form_ has so +many derivative senses that it would be an advantage to have this one +thus differentiated both in spelling and sound. + + 26. 'Toadstools twired and hued fantastically'. (68) + + +Though the word #twired# is not explained in Mr. Blunden's glossary +and the meaning is not evident from the context, we guess that he is +using it here of shape, in the sense of 'contorted', which would range +with the quotation from Burton (given in some dictionaries) 'No sooner +doth a young man see his sweetheart coming, but he ... slickes his +haire, twires his beard [&c.]'. Here _twires_, as latest edition of +_O.E.D._ suggests, may be a misprint for _twirls_. Older dictionaries +give wrong and misleading definitions of this word; and a spurious +_twire_, to sing, was inferred from a misreading 'twierethe' for +'twitereth' in Chaucer's _Boethius_, III m. 2. Modern authorities only +allow _twire_, to peep, as in Shakespeare's 28th Sonnet, + + 'When sparkling stars twire not, thou gildst the even' + + +(whence some had foolishly supposed that _twire_ meant twinkle) and in +Ben Jonson, _Sad Shepherd_, II. 1, 'Which maids will twire at, 'tween +their fingers'. The verb is still in dialectal use: _E.D.D._ explains it +'to gaze wistfully or beseechingly'. + + 27. 'The tiny frogs + Go yerking'. (69) + + +#Yerk.# The intrans. verb is to kick as a horse. The trans. verb is +quoted from Massinger, Herrick, and Burns, who has 'My fancy yerkit up +sublime': i.e. roused, lashed. + + 28. 'There seems no heart in wood or wide'. (8) + + +#Wide# as a subst. is hardly recognized. Tennyson is quoted, 'The +waste wide of that abyss', but as _waste_ is a recognized substantive +the authority is uncertain. + +In the above examples we have taken such words as best answered our +purpose, neglecting many which have almost equal claims. The richness of +the vocabulary in unusual words and in words carrying unusual meanings +forbids complete examination; as will be seen by a rough classification +of some of those which we have passed over. + +To begin with the words which our author uses well, we will quote as an +example all the passages in which #writhe# occurs. The transitive +verb which is perhaps in danger of neglect is very valuable, and it is +well employed. These passages will also fully exhibit the general +quality of Mr. Blunden's diction. + + 'But no one loves the aguish mist + That writhes its way at eventide + Along the copse's waterside'. (3) + + 'But now the sower's hand is writhed + In livid death '. (25) + + 'To-morrow's brindled shouting storms with flood + The purblind hollows with a leaden rain + And flat the gleaning-fields to choking mud + And writhe the groaning woods with bursts of pain'. (42) + + 'The lispering aspens and the scarfed brook-grasses + With wakened melancholy writhe the air'. (53) + + +#Dimpling# is well and poetically used in + + + 'While the woodlark's dimpling rings + In the dim air climb'. (21) + + +and also _quag_ (verb) (2), _seething_ (3), _channelled_ (9), _bunch_ +(11), _jungled_ (11), _rout_ (verb) (12), _fluster_ (13), _byre_ (13), +_plash_ (shallow water) (19), _tantalise_ (neut. v.) (36), _hutched_ +(43), _flounce_ (44), _rootle_ (45), _shore_ (verb) (59). _Lair_ (verb) +(43) does not seem a useful word. + +Next, words somewhat obscurely or fancifully used are _starving_ (1), +_stark_ (10), _honeycomb_ (15), _cobbled_ (of pattens) (16), _lanterned_ +(24), _well_ (49), _bergomask_ (for village country dances?) (25), +_belvedere_ (of the spider's watch tower) (26). + +While the following seem to us incorrectly used: _mumbling_ (23) used of +wings; the word is confined to the mouth whether as a manner of eating +or of speaking: _crunch_ (28) where the frosts crunch the grass: whereas +they only make it crunchable. _maligns_ (54) used as a neuter verb +without precedent, _chinked_ (58) of light passing through a chink: +and note the homophone chink, used of sound. And then the line + + + 'The blackthorns clung with heapen sloes' (55) + + +contains two reprehensible liberties, because _clung_ in its +original proper sense means congealed or shrivelled; to _cling_ was an +intransitive verb meaning to adhere together: its modern use is to stick +fast [to something]--and secondly, _heapen_ is not a grammatical form; +the p.p. is _heaped_. + +Again, in the line + + 'He well may come with baits and trolls', (11) + + +we do not know whether _trolls_ has something to do with pike-fishing, +or merely means the reel on the rod. In that sense it lacks +authority(?), moreover it is a homophone, used by our poet in + + 'And trolls and pixies unbeknown'. (18) + + +Finally, there are a good many English country names for common plants, +for example, Esau's-hands, Rabbits'-meat, Bee's balsams, Pepper-gourds, +Brandy-flowers, Flannel-weed, and Shepherd's rose; and some of these are +excellent, and we very much wish that more of our good English +plant-names could be distinctively attached. + +We will not open the discussion here, except to say that the casual +employment of local names is of no service because so many of these +names are common to so many different plants. Our author's +#Rabbits'-meat#, for instance, is applied to _Anthriscus +sylvestris_, _Heracleum Spondylium_, _Oxalis Acetosella_ and _Lamium +purpureum_; all of which may be suitable rabbits' food. But each +one of these plants has also a very wide choice of other names: thus +_Anthriscus sylvestris_, besides being _Rabbits-meat_ may be familiarly +introduced as Dill, Keck, Ha-ho, or Bun, and by some score of other +names showing it to be disputed for by the ass, cow, dog, pig and even +by the devil himself to make his oatmeal. + +_Heracleum Spondylium_, alias Old Rot or Lumper-scrump, provides +provender for cow, pig, swine, and hog, and also material for Bear's +breeches. + +_Oxalis Acetosella_ is even richer in pet-names. After Rabbits'-meat, +sheep-sorrel, cuckoo-spice, we find Hallelujah! Lady's cakes, and God +Almighty's bread-and-cheese. These are selected from fifty names. + +_Lamium purpureum_ is not so polyonymous. With Tormentil, Archangel, +and various forms of Dead-nettle, we find only Badman's Posies and +Rabbits'-meat. + +The worst perplexity is that well-known names, which one would think +were securely appropriated, are often common property. Our authority for +the above details--the _Dictionary of English Plant-names_, by James +Britten and Robert Holland--tells us that _Orchis mascula_, the 'male +orchis', is also called Cowslip, Crowsfoot, Ragwort, and Cuckoo-flower. +This plant, however, seems to have suggested to the rustic mind the most +varied fancies, similitudes of all kinds from 'Aaron's beard' to +'kettle-pad'. + + * * * * * + + +The Committee of the S.P.E. invite the membership of all those who are +genuinely interested in the objects of the Society and willing to assist +in its work. The Secretary will be glad to receive donations of any +amount, great or small, which will be duly acknowledged and credited in +the Society's banking account. + +Members who wish to have the tracts of the Society forwarded to them as +they are issued, should ensure this by sending a subscription of 10_s_. +to the Secretary, who will then supply them for the current year of +their subscription. The four tracts published in the last year were thus +sent to a number of subscribers; and it would greatly assist the Society +if all these would renew their subscriptions, and if others would +subscribe for our forthcoming publications in the same manner. All +donations and subscriptions should be sent to the Hon. Secretary, + +L. PEARSALL SMITH, + +11 ST. LEONARD'S TERRACE, +S.W. 3. + +The prospectus of the Society will be found in Tract I, and further +details in Tracts III and IV. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Society for Pure English, Tract 5 +by Society for Pure English + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12524 *** |