, 1873-01-26
GRAND WORDS.

| GRAND WORDS.
| By PROFESSOR WILLIAM MATTHEWS, OF THE UN1vER'
.s1TY or CHICAGO.
Among tho peculiaritics by which we are
wont to judge Of character, few are more signif-
icant than the language which MN habitually
! uses. No one is at loss, for instance to deter
mine the character OF man who clothes his
thoughts in the plain but expressive garb Of the
Anglo-sazon idiom, and eschews the bad French
and worse Italian which nre Infected BY literary
dandies and cockneys. Nor is one puzzled for q
moment to characterize the opposite Glass;
sons, as selden calls them, 'of squeamish stom-
aohs, who would rather choose to I've In ignor-
ance Of things the most useful and important,
than to have their delicate enrs wounded BY the
uso Of word unknown to Cicero, Sallust, or
the writer's Of the Augustan age" Bet what
shall We think OF third class, growing daily
moro and moro numerous, who, apparently des-
pising the homely but torso and telling words Of
their mother tongue, never use Saxon term it
they can find ia long-tailcd word in osity or
alton +" to convey, or rather darken, their mean
ing7 Is it from consciousness Of their poverty
Of thought that they Try to dignity their truisms,
and lift them out OF the limbo Of commonplace,
by tricking them in glittering words and phrases7
Or is it because they share in the universal mania
for the sensational, the craving for novelty End
excitement, which is SO common in these days,
that they never call things by their proper
names? Was Ta1leyrand wrong when he said
that language WIS giyen to man to conceal his
thoughts and was it really given to hide his rant
Of thought7 Is.it, indeed, the main object Of
expression to convey the smallest possible amount
Of meaning with the greatest possible amount Of
appearance of meaning and, since nobody can
be as wise as Thurlow looked" !" to look as wise
as Thur1ow while uttering the voriest t1uisms7
Be this as it may, the persons OF whom we
speak do not regard the simple Saxon as good
enough for their purposes, and 30 they array
their ideas in "big, dictionary Words" de-
rived from the Latin, aud load their style with
exp1etives as tasteless as the stteamers OF tat
tered fnery that dnttor about the person OF .
dilapidated belle. Provided that word is OUT
ot-the-way, unusual, or rfar-fetched, and especi-
ally il it is one OF many syllables,-they care
little whether it is apt and fit OF not. The beau-
tnM English words "boy" and "gir1" they
have nearly banished from our tongue. Boys
and girls have transformed into "juveniles
and "juveni1o members OF the community ~
work1nen have become "operatives and
men and women generally are now q indivld-
uals." "Individnal" is good LGtin word,
and serves good purpose when it distinguishes
a person from neop1e or class, as it served d
good purpose in the scholastic philosophy but
would Cicero or Duus Scotus have called great
man an en,inens indiuiduum : These "1ndiyid-
uals," strange to say, are never dressed, but
always "attirod;" they never take of their
things, but 'diyest themselves Of their habili-
ments," which ia 80 much grander.
Again the Anti-Saxons, if ne MAJ SO call
them, never tell US that man WAS asleep, but
eay that he Was "1ocked in slumbar :" they
deem it vulgar, and perhaps cruel, to say that q
criminal WAS hanged but very elegant to say that
he was "ln1lnched into eternity" L person Of
their acquaintance never does 80 low thing as
to break his log; he " fractures his limb He
is not, when dead, placed in coffin, and buried
in q graveyard bdt-oh! refinement OF cru
city, the individual" when "defunct," is
ts deposited in burial casket," and Inferred
in cemetery" Our Latin friends-fortuuate
souls-never have their feelings hurt, though it
must be confessed that their !" sensibilties" are
sometimes droadfully "1acerated." Above the
necessities OF their fel1ow~creatures, they
novor oat mani ; they always "partake
Of repast," which Is 30 much more elegant.
Ihey never DO 80 eommonplace 1nang
as to take Walk; they make pc
aestf1an e1euislon, a eon1utof "'1n mem - a
plesslag1'ato. a1or.une'souel' 'ae'elna-
LUZ aS -, aoe1t 'ass' lucy n1asA au n1su1o
lnefe ~ "'1n 1ne1 Nv aug, pat an AusuS'
na monaeu' Nv 80, ~. . s1F,sat Psa. ~
1
aoqae st11 IL e1ns o,na nobls noatant 50 noesse:
sna r. avoid tha nndicn;ded ,ccoranp tn them
- ~ on11 nacasaorv ~ ~ III +h;n9a hv +hair
- -;att ~ a.mes .rhs most dan1or,b1a efract ~ th;s
&re- - ~ sra.ri,o s.;da frorn ita n,oro1 asnectz
~ th,t = = danririno all tha aonnd
- .to.,,ns a.~+ ~ H. rra1ia,, 1on1u,ge
49, s.,.,;;s- a;an;+,o.noo ~ fo,oo ~.
that n IT, .1e rsrsv nse vii at 1ast ;nevitab1v dsan-
.,o,r .,a +hns - MI .naa;1;11 c1,cLsd +h;a