The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-16
FULL OF USELESS WORDS.
wEBsTER's DICTIONARY SWAMP
ED WITH OBSOLETE VERBIA GE.

out on almost every page Of the big book
and apparently are inserted for no other
nurpose than TO continue the growth of the
work and increase the difficulty of acquir-
ing our language. Some idea of them may
be gathered from the following letter, writ
ten by an alleged poet to an editor who had
treated his poetry with derision:
SIR-You have behaved like an impetiginous
scrogle. Like those who, envious of any moral
celStude, carry their ungicity TO the hight of
creating symposically the fecund words which
nv pollymaChic genius uses with liberty to
abiyate the tongues OF the weetless. Sir, you
have crassly parodied my own pet words as
though they we're traugrams will not con-
cervate reproaches-I will obduce q veil over
tee ornamental ngratitude which has cham
fered even my indscerptible heart l am silent
on the focillation which my coadjuvancy must
have given you when offered to become your
fsntor and adminicle. l viii not speak of the
lppitude, the oblepsy, you have shown in eX-
ecerbstng me, one whose genius you should
have approached with mental discalceation.
So tell you, without supervacaneous words
nothing will render ignosche your conduct to
me- / warn you that would velucate your nose
if thought that any moral diarthrosis could be
thereby perfOrmed-ifI thought | should not
impignorete my reputation. Go photographic
scr0gle band with your Grass inquinate fantors;
draw oblectatons from the thought if you can,
of having synchronically lost the eXtstimaLiOn
OF the greatest poet since Milton.
Ridiculous as these words may seem,
nearly all of them are to be found in We b.
ster'a unabridged dictionary, aud few Of
them are declared obsolete.
MusCHIEvoUs' SUBSTITUTES.
Many robust Saxon words which met all
requirements have been thrown out TO make
room for words Of less strength and force,
merely to satisfy the extremely polite taste
of feeble minds. Thus our language is weak
Tg.-- l. $50
sion in 5treining after euphony. Our pure
and good old Saxon word sweat was good
enough for our forefathers through many a
generation aud down the centuries from the
time Of Adam, but some of our dilettanti
photographers whose ideas of taste and Gu
phony had run away with them, declared
it vulgar and now wo have at least three
words IN our dictionary to express the idea
of water passing through the pores OF the
skin to the surfGce-namely, perspire,
traDspire and sweat. But does the so-called
improvement over the Saxon word improve
the idea conveyed, and does not that remain
the same
Alter this interminable mixture Of words
is stirred into our dictionary our lexicog-
raphers further cast Egyptian darkness
around the searcher for information by con-
tortiDg the meaning Of each into every
shape his inventive genius is capable of aud
which was never intended or thought of in
the original. Then their scientific work is
complete and 80, indeed, is the justification
of the student.
The French, Italian and Spanish are the
sottest, most comprehensive aud most m US
steal languages now in use, aud not one of
them has dictionary of one-third the num-
Der OF words dumped into ours by lexicoC-
raphers. They find the inferior number
of words in common use by their people
fully adequate to an elegant expression of
their idees without wandering into other
lands to gather foreign words, while our
photographers are constantly gathering
foreign words into our already overtaxed
collection. Take our Webster for proof.
When the penal code of New York state
became 50 mystfyiDg that even a Phila-
delphia lawyer houndered in it, and it was
discovered that there was law to counter
ect the effect OF every other Jaw and render
IL nugetory, like ono nail driving another
out, an eminent lawyer was chosen to
simplify it. A layman or even a drayman
would have done better, fer the patching
made it weaker and more Incomprehenslble
than ever And thus it would be with our
dictionary submitted to a photographer for
simplifying. Notwithstanding the vest ac-
cumulatlon OF verbiage in our dictionary it
Is not 70 be wondered at that our writers
and speakers are at times forced to coin
words to express their ideas and that the
less learned follow the example in the coin
ing Of what we term slang words" princi-
pally because they are used by the masses
and are not yet honored by places in the
dictionary. But they land there in due
time.
HOW SLANG WORDS ORIGINATE.
The necessity for coming words to ex-
press Ideas aud describe objects is always
apparent notwithstanding the overloaded
dictionary, and it is seldom that a slang
word Is not 30 appropriate that 1t does not
occasion smile at its fitness.
The slang word bogus" has been legiti-
matted. bus suffered from neglect for
years 1t is Georgia word William A.
bogus was Georgia land lottery commits
sioner years ago caught in rascaltty in
Office. he issued fraudulent land rights.
ne furnished our Vernacular with word
LOT everything spurious and false. Cant"
was slang word. Alexander Cant of
scotland was deposed by the synod 'for
9lVers seditious and impudent passages in
MS sermons at several places" Ali sedltIoas
praying aud preaching in Scotland was
thereafter called "cantiug.n The word
"ca6al' owes its origin to the fact that one
Vi Tue ministries of Charles H., in 1871, was
composed Of five men, the Initial letters of
whose names formed the word, thus: Cliff
IoFd, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and
Lauderdale. The word ''contrabandn origi-
:'ogeu WIN STAN officer with Gea. Butler
III fortress Monroe during the civil war aud
was Immediately adopted by the general.
us us singular appropriateness at once popu-
.qrlz9I It, "Fiibuster" is c corruption Of
va compound word "hy,boat." The word
hoodlum" Is synonymous with ''Ioafer.n
aNu originated in San Francisco, Cal The
"oro "snupe" is of New York city origin
anu Is applied to child VINO steals sweet
meats ana other attractive delicacies.
In The exl.tence and development OF what
eventually becomes a bullfrog there is an
Intermediate state after he ceases to be a
tauooIe and before be becomes frog. IL is
Sta'9u that While IN this stage he is called by
me boys OF Virginia and else " here in the
south "mugwump,n that is, neither one
tulng nor the other. According to another
s1utnofity tie word is Michigan for "big In
u.ah. Another says that "mugwump" is !
on a.. Old algonquin word, meaning chief or
A. m ~ and occurs in Eiiot's Indian Bible. |
Iuere are the words "sockdolager," ''shln- !
p-aster," "skedaddle," 'spondulicks," |
sproadeagloism.n ''soreheadlsrn," "splurg- !
gu gu and 'squeIched, whose derivatioLs are
g. bnncombe" is & North Carolina, brought |
.uto prominence by Gen. Thomas L. Cling |
t ,i1 while in congress-. The state of Illi- |
nols 10 called ''tEe sucker state" sucker" |
1%eIag nickname Of the 0rs5 residents IF |
tuo ; ate, OF whom it is said that when they |
, %oLe thirsty and could not get corn juice" |
S1ey would sucss the water from the crab or |
S,1i ISh holes in the prsicies Of that state.