Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1868-12-17

In the GALAXY tor November, Rich
ard Grant White makes some very
good suggestions about 'words that
are not words" In this list he in
cludes:
PEEsIDESTIAL.-Ihis word belongs
to a sort ofadjectives which are formed
from substantives by the addition of al.
For example, incident, incidental; orient,
oriental, regiment, regimental; experiment,
syper neaf1L When the noun ends in
&c euphony and ease Of utterance re-
quire the modification of sound of
al into that of ial; as office, official; con-
sequence, consequential; commerce,
commercial; but we might as well say
parental, monumental, and govern
mental as presidential. Presidential
campaign is blatant Americanism for
presidential canvass.
Jeopardise is foolish and in,olera-
BILE word.
Certain verbs have been formed from
nouns and adjectives by the addition
OF use, or properly i-e; as tor example,
equal, equalize: civil, civilize; patron,
patronize. But jeopardize has no
such claims to toleration respect.
1t is formed by adding ,ze to verb
oflong standing in the language, and
which means to put in peril; and jeop-
ardize, it 1t means anything, means
nothing more or less. Richardson is
all wrong upon this word. He gives
ieopardize as 4 verb and leopard as a
noun, by iuadverentce, perhaps, for
all his examples are to the contrary.
ESpcramcntaIize has no rightful
place in the language, and is both un-
ton ,.s, which We have borreweI ne .eTmllla frnm
the Greek, is not to- be tackled inais-,
crimina'ely to any. werph as we'll IS
guasSgfft IS and nouns, for the purpose
OF making new verbs that are nevded.
1t has meaning, and that meaning
seems to be continuity OF action; GER
tainly action. and action not momen-
tary. Thus, equalize, to make equaE
naturalize, to make natural; civlllze, to
make civil; SO moralize, legallze, hui
mamie, etc. But the people who use
cxperamenta.ize, use 1t, meaning to
try experiments. Experiment, how
ever, is both noun and verbs and will
serve all purposes not better served
by try and trial.
Controversalist and Conversations
list, too frequent y heard, are mad
missable for like reasons to those
given against experamentalize. 1t Is
the substantive form of the verbal '-e
The proper words are controversial
and conversaticnist. The others have
no place in the language.
Preventative, casualty and agricnl-
turalist, receive passing notice, only
because they are heard SO often instead
OF preventive, causalty and agricultu-
rist. They ought to be, but fear
they are not, evidences Of an utter
want of education, and low grade
of intelligence.
DoNArE.-Ineedh hardly say, l hope,
to any reader of these articles, that
this word is utterly abominable-one
that any lover OF simple, honest Eng.
lish cannot hear with patience and
without offence. 1t has been formed
bv some presuming and ignorant per-
son from donation, and is much such
a word as vocate would be from voca-
ton. crate from Grafton, or grada:e
from gradation; and this when We have
give, present, grant, confer, cndow,
beaucath, devise, with which to cN-
press the action of transferring posses
sion in all its varieties. The first OF
these will answer the purpose i'll most
eases better than either OF the others,
and donation itself is not one OF our
best words.
GESr AND PAsrs-Let these words
90 together ike the thingssthcy signi-
liz. The one always wears the other
RssuRREcrrD This amazing COM
-bnation has lately appeared in some
Of our newspapers, one OF them edited
by man who has been Clerk OF the
Senate. What is it intended to mean:
Possibly the same act which people
who speak English mean when they
say that Lazarus was raised from the
dead The formation of resurrect from
resurrection, is just OF a piece with
The formation Of donate from donation.
But it is somewhat worse; for resur-
rccted is used to mean raised. and res
direction does not mean raising but
rising. Thus we speak Of the raising
Of Lazarus, but OF the resurrection OF
Christ; of Gods raising the dead, but
of the resurrection of the dead.