Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1850-03-06
FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES.

wishes to display his knowledge Of the Ian
guage from which he borrows, or that he is
ignorant of the corresponding words in
English; in the former case, i, is pedantry,
in the latter, ignorance, and in both cases is
departure from true simplicity and ele-
gance. A few examples will illustrate our
meaning, and show the folly and the danger
Of the barbarous practice.
An excellent periodical, in critical no.
tice of Wh.,ier's Poems, says, "The physi-
que Of the book is charming" To the mere
American this conveys the idea that as a
medicine the book is agreeable. The re-
viewer probably 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 abound mos, in novels and the
light literature Of the day. A novel be-
fore us have such expressions as these -
"They have just escaped from Paris, where
they had been for some years among the
detenus." (detained.)
elf j, is religion that does all tha, for her,
i. is a religion Of achich I can form no idea:
cele me passe.'' Here the French is a mere
parsphrase Of the English words that are
Italicized, and how will the lorei On words
hel p the reader to any thing new-but the
vanity Of the writer?
''She surrounded herself with vases Of
flowers, to i've her apartment un air de tete,"
"a festive appearance.)
In such books, medley or mirture is
mezamge a fray is nothing short of a melee,
and the select not the chosen but the elite.
Dlsputants do not differ eaiirely but toto
cac1o, and they never begin again, but de
noro' or, as some goslings prefer TO say,
ab oro.
And yet ,heseare called English sentences!
We hesitate not TO say that no teacher ought
for moment to coun,enance such works
by reading them, and is unfa,hful to his
trust. II he already can write pure English
he needs no such ornaments, and he cam
no. write English correctly, nothing will
more efec.ually prevent his doing so, than
the use Of foreign words or foreign idioms.
But our Newspapers have caught the
disease, and some who know too li1'le OF
English, and nothing of any other language,
allow themselves TO use foreign expressions,
and olten.iimes commit egregious blunders,
without the salutary pain of knowing it,
Perhaps no foreign word is so frequently
spelled wrong as nairete, word OF three
syllables, meaning ar.lessuess, Ingenious
ness. The common error is to spell i.
naivene. Then the pretty word posy has
been superseded almost entirely by the
French bouquet, or as nine-tenths Of our edi-
tors spell it, 6oquet. As this spelling mis-
leads the speaker, we recommend to the
pedan,s to spell the word boo quet, before il
is too late.
The most common items Of news are in
terlarded with such barbarisms. Thus the
President is never going to Washington, but
he is en- route for the city. No remark
can now be made by the acay, or in passing.
bu, j, must be en- passant. A rising OF the
people is no longer mob or a rebellion, but
an eaeute Our ancestors did without en-
nui for many centuries but their sons pre-
tend that no English word expresses the
full idea, and even dorchester has been
compelled to give the word place in his
great dictionary. The difficulty Of prononn-
cling this word more than balances any
shade of meaning that it possesses over list
lesness, tediousness, irksomeness, &C.. which
the best dictionaries have always given so
completely synonymous with emnui.
Some years ago venerable Boston edl-
tor discovered that mus verrOnS was more
expressive pharse than ace avi1 see; and now
every village editor, after giving his view of
national affairs, gathers himself up in his
armchair, and usters the doubtful prophesy
''nous uerrons."
Now all this is exceedingly silly, if not
! positively in jurious to both writers and
readers. Our intercourse with thousands
of teachers has satisfied us that they are
very defective in expressive English, and
this they can never acquire while they allow
themselves to read inferior authors, or Ia
expect ,ha, the use of few foreign express
ions will atone for want of sense, or.neglect
of style,-Con,mon School Journal.