Evening star., 1886-11-27

N%~siA O@1cstEs
We laugh at the II euess'' of the Yankee. and
l seem to look upon 1t az phase Of his own in
| vention-forgetful or unaware of the fact that
early in the seventeenth century it was in COM
mon use, as, indeed, IL had been as early as the
| fourteenth. Is 1t not employed as the
| Americans employ It in Chaucer's linee-
| M twenty year OF age he was, geese
"Better far. I guess.
That we do max our entrance several ways
When our cousins puzzle US BY % speaking a oi the
using good seventeenth century Enssh sy af1 Dry
den has
Ws 9rowds dis Of patients the town kills.
The word ''sick,' which the Americans use
where most OF MS use the word 'ill,' had the
| meaning they assign to it in the days of
Chaucer, of Shakespeare, and OF Pope. Where
we speak of person being plain, the Americans
would describe him as hOfnely-once more re-
tanning q perfectly classical usage. In Milton's
''COmus' I'VE have
ut is for homely features to keep home,
They had their name thence"
The verb "to whittle' most people, probably,
would pronounce tobe a newly coined word;
but it is not SO. Johnson gives an example Of
its use from "Hakewith on Providence" q
word. having no equivalent in the language
wisely. The substantive -whittle," signifying
knife. Is found in Shakespeare (''Timon OF
Athensa ". y, but seems to have died out not
ionglafter "Slick" again. we should at first sight
iacture, but we should be quite wrong. Chap
man 1BO3) describes the god Apollo as "both
slicke and daintie," and later on In the century
and Fuller. The former speaks OF slick stones,
I. e., smooth stones. A familiar form of suluta-
tion which one hears sometimes in the states
.How dye" is not of native growth, but has
the sanction of no less writer than Pope.
Years make men more talkative," he says
those few am forged to correspond with" ~
III In the case Of "cnte" we have in one and
the same word an instance OF the legitimate
rantable introduction Of novelty. When Amer
they can show that It was 50 employed in the
past; but when in the sense Of "pretty," they
fan can don do no such thing Many Of tair sex use
perating extent. "Ain't he cutter? you will hear
whole chorus exclaim as they gaze in rap
little dresses Other ofod words s ths1 that
would have died out and been lost to the lam
guage had they not been well cared for in their
.Freshet" truly described by Archbishop
french as an exquisite word, is one of them; It
is used by Milton:
"An Ash from sea or Shore
Freshet or puring brook"
Another is "bluff," formerly. however. used
as an adjective (e. O., ia bluff peninsular promi-
nence)," whereas the Americans-followed by
our owl Tennyson,. ."round the hills from bluff
10 DluH H-employ 1t as substantative; others
are 'snag." q word which we meet with in
an old verb signlfying to disturb, to vex, and
found in Chaucer.
The use Of the formal "Sir'' when addressing
a stranger or person with whom one has only q
slight acquaintance is another instance of the
retention by the American of past modes of
speech. Good illustrations of this particular Gus
tom, as 1t existed at the time that the new world
was being coiOniZed, are found in the "Compleat
angler, whose author died in the year in
which Philadelphia was founded by Penn.
Such sentences as the following are constantly
occurring: Sir, shall by your favor bear you
tune has answered my DESIRES" II am sir q
brother of the angle and SO on.
1t is evident, then, that many so-called Amer
icanisms, so far from being arbitrary novelties,
have the clearest right to be regarded as ENG