The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-08-23
Foreign Words and Phrases.

ne use OF Foreign WORDS always seems
to imply one Of two things: that the wIter
wishes to display his knowledge of the Ian
guage from which he borrows, or that he is
ignorant of the corresponding words in the
English language: in the former case, it is
pedantry, in the latter, ignorance, and in
both cases is a departure from true simplici-
ty and elegance. A few examples will illus
trate our meaning, and show the folly and
danger of the barbarous practice.
| An excellent periodical, in a critical notice
of Winters Poems says, s'The physique of
the book is charming" To the mere Ameri-
can this conveys the idea, that as a medicine
the book is agreeable. The reviewer prob
ably means that the mechanical execution of
the book is charming, but it may be doubted
whether this is correct use Of the French
word.
| Examples Of this useless intrusion Of for
( eign words .ahound most in novels, and the
/ light literature of the day. A novel before
us has such expressions as these:
They have just escaped from Paris,
where they had been for some years among
the detenus.nn (detained)
4" If it is religion that does all for her, it is
a religion of achich eun form no idea; celia
me passes. Here the French is mere par
aphrase of the English words that are itali-
ciZed, and how will the foreign words help
the reader TO -anything new,-but the vanity
of the writer?
&c She had surrounded herself with vases
of flowers; to give her apartment IN AIR de
tete." Ga festive appearance
/ In such books, a medley or nairture is a
melange--a jrayjs nothing shorrofa melee,
and the select are not chosen but the chile
Disputants do not differ entirely, but toto
c9io, and they do not begin again hut de
moro, or as some goslings prefer to say Oh
oro. It's all stuff.
| And vet these are called English senten-
ces! We hesitate not to say that no teacher
ought for a moment to countepance such
works by reading them, and any one who
would stoop to initiate them, is unfaithfui
to his trust. II he already can write pure
English be needs 10 such ornaments; and
if he cannot write English correctly, nothing
will more effectualiy prevent his doing so
than the use of foreign words or foreign
idioms
! But our newspapers have caught the dis
ease, and some editors who know too little
of English and nothing of any other Ian
guage, allow themselves to use foreign ex
pressiens, and oftentimes commit egregiOus
plumbers, without the saIutary pain of know
ing it. Perhaps no foreign word is SO fire.
quently spelled wrong as naicete, word Of
three sylIabIes, meaning arAessness, inge's-
ttousness. The common error is to spell it
nairette. Then the pretty word posy has
been superseded almost entirely by the
French word bouquet, or as nfne-tenths of
our editors spell it, bouquet. As this spelling
fnisleads the speaker, we recommend the
pedants to spell the word bouquet, before it
is too late.
| The most common items Of news are in
terlarded with such barbarsms. Thus the
President is never going to Washington, but
he is en- route for that city. No remark can
be made By the scay, or an passing, but it
must he en- PEASANT. A rising Of the people
is no longer mob or rebellion, but an en-
cute. Our ancestors did without ennui for
many centuries, but their sons pretend that
no English word expresses the full idea, and
even Worcester has been compelled to give
the word place in his great dictionary
The difficulty Of pronouneng the word more
than balances any shade Of meaning thatit
possess over istiesness. tediousness, irk-
someone's, &c., which the best dictionaries
have given as completely synonymous with
ennui.