Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-02-02

How TINT Country is Corruptinx the
Language.


remember hearing, with astonlsh
ment, dozen years ago, from an Englisl
gentleman of culture and high socia
standing, that it was necessary to remove
the gates of Quebec, "to give more room
for trdWc.' I asked no question, bu
wondered inwardly whether the people o
the American Gibraltar were in the habit
like the ancient Orientals, of resorting tc
the gates of the town to exchange com
modities with each other. On our arri.
val next morning the mystery was solved
1t was travel not barter, that my friend
meant by traffic. The word is continual
ly thus misused i'll England, and it must
be sorrowfully admitted that the bad
habit is now slowly invading this country
as, well. Other examples-as yet, hap
PLY, not naturalized in American usage
arc; Famous, for excellent; bargain,
for haggle iresomc, for disagreeable !;
rot, for nonsense jug, for pitcher; good
form, for in good taste trap, for light
wagon tuJ, for battle; stop. for remain !;
assist, for be present plant, for fix
lures intimate, for announce !; and tidy
for almost anything complimentary. A
day of "a very tidy bull" tho writer
means intending to refer to any partcu-
lish hostlers also-to get pretty well
down i'll the social scale, though by no
means going ms low rs do the compilcrs
search for blunders English hostlers
sometimes speak of chiUing cold water,
meaning warming it slightly-an extrnor-
IL Nf
and elementary word. 1t is not only,
however, in their recent coinages and an
omalous assigning of new meanings to
old terms, that the English have made
reckless changes in tho body of our
speech where the American practice ad.
heres to the former standard. They have
swung OFF in the opposite direction also,
curtailing to no good purpose the signi-
son is always girl in England. An in
valid is Gill;" not sick, unless he happens
to be nauseated, though it is regarded ms
fined to n sick room or stretched upon
sick-bed. A BritOn is Mortified Mt the
idea of riding in carriage, although he
makes no scruple of riding in an omnibus
or street car, When you enter the ve-
hicle at the side you drive; when at the
end you ride And if the author of
macleod of Dare" is Trustworthy guide,
the word up, used in reference to a Jour
ney in Great Britain, indicates not that
the traveller is seeking moro elevated
region or moving northwardly but solely
that he is going toward the capital "up
to London and down to the Highlands
are, it appears, the correct formulas. A
third kind of variation that seems to have
grown up in Great Britain to n greater
extent than in this country is the habit of
turning active and especially refexive
verbs into neuters, MS "Don't trouble"
for "Don't trouble yourself" As long
ago as 1854 Miss Yonge wrote Gn
Hearts ease y "Theodora flung away
and was rushing Off" Charles Reade,
whom the astute Fitzedward Hall ranks
among 'the choicest of living English
WRITER'S" is guilty of such phrases as
"Wardlaw whipped before him, ""Little,"
flung out of the room, and various 9TH
ers. These and similarly incomplete SEN
tences certainly strike the American enr
as decided innovations, and constitute
popularity of fiction very rarely to be OBJ
served on this side of the water. The
English have also practice, more pro-
nounccd by far than our own, of abbre-
Waiting good many words in their COM
mon talk. They never call their consoli- |
dated Government bonds anything but |
''consols.' The geological Gardens in |
London are the "Zoo," and n series of |
popular concerts given every season in !
the same city are euphoniously denomi- |
mated the monday Pops" Hampshire |
is Chants :" Buckinghamshire Bucks :"
Hertfordshirc, "Herts." A similar liber- |
ty is taken with the names of firms
'Smith Il Co. is made to do duty. even
in formal business letters, for the estab-
lished title, 'Smith, Brown & Robin
SON" In the construction of many SEN
tcnces, however, an opposite plan is fire.
quently followed, the insertion of utterly |
superfluous words. Thus one OCCASION
ally hears English ladies' ask, "What-
crcr are You doing" meaning "What are
you doing?" In Herbert Spencer on
Education, We read that ''in Russia the |
infant mortality is something enormous"
Few Americans would have put in the |
something And who has not been |
disgusted by the innumerablc oots with |
which 50 many English pages fairly bris-
tie in places, / mean, where the author
does not intend to convey the slightest
idea OF getting bnt only that of present |
possession. The general American dis
like of this word, and our practice, where
the past partciple of get must be used |
OF adopting the old and softer form g0ftcn |
(now scarcely ever heard in England are
not exactly what would be expected of
people who are running the language.
The electric incandcsccnt pockc,book is
the latest 1t is always light.-7hc Drum
mtr.