Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-14
Amcricanisms Defended.
From the New York Sun.

mas supplemented his observations OF our p0lit-
icai institutions by some comments on AmerI-
can peculiarities of speech. published in the first
number of the new Loaqaadns Magazine. That
many of the words used in this country to
which objection has been taken in England are
not solecisms but genuine archaisms-survi-
walls and not inyentions-is fact, the proofs of
which nave often been set forth in these col
umns 1t is pleasant, however, to see the same
conclusion reached by an English scholar. who
speaks with perhaps as much authority on the
history OF English words as any man now
living.
Mr. freeman begins with asserting the para
doX that, IN the matter of language, as well as
IN some OF their social institutions. both Scot
and and the first settled parts of the United
states are more tenaciously and truly English
than England itself. People talk of American
isms and Scottcisms as if such peculiarities of
speech We're cofruptlons, or, at all events,
changes introduced by Americans and Scotsmen
into the existing English tongue. But the cur
rent opinion is not shared by men like Mr. Free
man. who know not only how people talk to-
day, but how they talked three hundred years
ago. They see that the great mass Of the alb
CREATIONS from present English usage which are
eschewed or ridculed as Americansms or
Seott'cisms, consists of perfectly good
English words which happen to have gone
out OF use in England. but which have
lived on in the United States and Scotland.
Some striking illustrations are adduced by
MI FREEMAN as. for instance, BARN." which
most persons would consider q Scottish word,
not knowing that King Alfred used it when he
talked about his children. Again, the use of
" fall in the sense of autumn is reputed an
Amercanism, but Mr.. Freeman points out that
the word had the same meaning in England up
TO very recent times. Indeed, he doubts
whether 1t has gone out of use even now for he
can distinctly remember. he tells us, hearing
the phrase ''spring and tall'' in his own child
hood. Mr. Freeman further notes that our
somewhat overworked adverb of assent, ser
tainly." which has lately been made the object
of good deal Of derision in London newspa-
pers. is very natural form OF granting re-
quest, though in England 1t is reserved for oc-
casons of some little Importance.
AS for guess" which is often denounced as a
rank 1ankeelsm, Mr.. Freeman, as might have
been expected from an Anglo-Saxon scholar, de-
clares 1t "a perfectly good FORM" and he pro-
nounces II reckon" as good English as English
can be. He acknowledges that lie might begin
to kick at Il calculate" but he is quite right in
believing the phrase to be seldom used in this
country, for we do not remember to have heard
it twice in lifetime There is reason to believe
that the employment of IL calculate" in the
region comprising the northwestern angle of
New hampshire and the northeastern corner of
Vermont. Even the word endorse" in Its
wide American use, seems to Mr.. Freeman
legitimate application of commercial term
by way OF metaphor to nOn-cOmmercial sub
w
that, of course, is indcfcnsiblc but Mr. Freeman
is Justified in assuming that educated persons in
the United States do not use it. The words
block" and lot" applied by us to the subdi-
visions OF the ground In q city town. seems to
the historian entirely proper, although they do
not possess the same meanings IN England. He
observed that American towns are built in
blocks In way in which the elder English
towns, at least. are not. AS to our term lot"
that points undoubtedly to the circumstances
under which in early colonial times land was
distributed among settlers by allotment So
with the phrase real estate as applied to
lands and houses; the use is perfectly inteli-
gible to any Englishman who has ever looked
into Blackstone. We may say here that the
fact noticed by Mr. Freeman that purely legal
phrases get more frequently into common usage
in the United States than in England, is eXpli-
cable by the remarkable political and social in
f1uence which lawyers have exercised in this
country since the revolutionary war
Even IN those cases where Americanisms do
not represent survivals of old English use. Mr..
Freeman inclines to regard them rather as legiti-
mate variations or happy adjustments to cir
cumstances than as imprOpricties Thus, in
this country, we use the word store to signify
a place where things are sold, In contradistinc-
ton from shop" by which we mean place
where things are made or done In England.
until very lately. the word ''shOp' was excu-
sively used to des gnate both places But MIR.
Freeman has no doubt that perfectly good rea-
son Tor the difference OF usage could be found in
some circumstance of early colonial life In
questionaby. In the first New England settle
ments, the only shop known would really be
store that Is, a place in which articles
brought from England would be stored ND
for distribution, barter or sale. So, too, our
specific application OF the term corn" which
in England covers various kinds Of grain, to In
dian corn or maize, is ineligible enough when
we remember that for many years after the first
settlement of this country the cOionists had to
depend almost exclusively on this particular
kind OF grain. Moreover, as Mr.. Freeman points
out, our narrow use of this word is exactly an
alogOus TO the restricted use of the word
beast" among English graziers, and of the
word bird among English sportsmen. Even
our term dry goods applied to the contents
OF particular kind of store (although the con-
tents of other stores may be equally dry), seems
to Mr.. Freeman quite as iustifable as the Eng
fish phrase hardware" which does not take in
all things that are in themselves hard
1t Is not clear to this thoroughly competent
observer on what grounds the English term
railway should be preferred to the American
word railroad" He tells us, indeed, that
though railroad is now seldom used in Eng
land yet there, also. it was the more usual
name when the thing itself first came in.
Neither does he fail to see the reason for the
different names given to the vehicle which runs
along the rails. In Great Britain this is a ''car-
riage;" in America it is "car" Now, in
i-ho tHC IdINdS CuIIEtKc Is SlmplN
the old-fashioned carriage put to a new
use, the chief innovation lying in hitch
ing several such carriages together But
the vehicle ordinarily used in America during
the last 30 years was not made after any such
pattern; it required new name to describe It,
and there can be but little doubt that the term
car was originally suggested by an Irishman
We may here note that when the first railroads
were built in this country. the vehicles were
known as coaches" The term survives on at
least one American railroad and va; retained on
all sOlOng as the railway carriages recalled to the
eye Old-fashiOned stage coach adjusted to iron
tracks AS to the American phrase of being ''On
board a train, we do not wonder that MI Freeman
was perpleXed hy it. tor We have never heard a
satisfactory explanation OF it. As to the words
station" and depot" meaning the place at
Which trains step TO receive passengers. Mr.
Freeman reminds us that even the former is not
etymOlOgicaliy English, bur the Latin word is
certainly better than depot" for whose Ameri-
can Specification there is absolutely 10 iustifica-
ton. There is reason to believe that the word
was first used on railroad in central New
York, and was introduced by a man whose rudi-
mentary acquaintance with the French language
did not include knowledge of the French
word for railway station, or of the meanings
to which the term depot is properly con.
fined
On the whole we infer from Mr.. Freeman's
remarks that he has but little respect for those
parSODs who uiva fho most CT ,,bnu q