The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-06-21
Obsolete Words.

Work ana increase the dliilculJy or acqu1r-
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
scroglel Like those who, envious of any moral
celsitude, carry their ungicity to the height of
creating symposically the fecund words which
nv pollymathc genius uses with liberty to alb
ligate the tongues of the weetless! Sir, you
have crassy parodied my own pet Words as
though they we're irHugrams. / will not Goa
cervate reproaches-I will obduce veil over
the ornamental ingratitudc which has cham
fered even my indsccrptible heart. l am silent
on the focilation which my Coadjuyency must
have given you when | offered to become your
fantor and adminicle. | will not speak of the
lipptude, the oblepsy, you have shown in ex-
acerbatng me, one whose genius you should
have approached with mental discalccation.
So ] tell You, without supervacaneous words
nothing will render ignoscible your conduct TO
me. / warn you that | would vellicate your
nose if | thought that any moral diarthrosi.
could be thereby performed-if ! thought
should not impignorate my reputation. Go.
photographic scroge, band with your Grass in
quinate fantors draw oblectations from the
thought, if you can, of having synchroncally
lost the existimation of the greatest poet since
Milton!
Ridiculous as these words may seem,
nearly all of them are to be found in Web
ster's unabridged dictionary, and few of
them are declared obsolete.
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
weakened and loses much of its power of
expression in straining after euphony.
nt,, IL
Sweat was good enough for our forefa-
theirs through many a generation and down
the centuries from the time of Adam, but
some of our dilettanti photographers whose
ideas of taste and euphony had run away
with them declared it vulgar, and now we
have at least three words in our dictionary
toexpress the idea of water passing through
the pores of the skin to the surface--name
ly, perspire, transpire ana sweat. But does
the so called improvement over the Saxon
word improve the idea conveyed, and does
not that remain the same?
After this interminable mixture of words
is stirred into our dictionary our leXicog
raphers further cast Egyptian darkness
around the searcher after information by
comforting the meaning of each into every
shape his inventive genius is capable of and
which was never intended or thought of in
the original Then their scientific work is
complete and so indeed is the mystfication
of the student
The French Italian and Spanish are the
softest, most comprehensive and most mu-
steal languages now in use, and not one of
them has a dictionary of one-third the
number of words dumped into ours by leXi-
cographers They find the inferior number
of words in common use by their people
full x aHa tn n oil MT o. nrn n
their ideas without wandering into other
lands to gather foreign words, while our
photographers are constantly garnering
foreign words into our already overtaxed
collection Take our Webster for proof.
When the penal code of New York state
became so mystifying that even a Philadel-
phia lawyer floundered in it, and it was dis
covered that there was law to counteract
the effect of every other law and render it
nugatory like one nail driving another out
an eminent lawyer was chosen to simplify
it. A layman or even a drayman would
have done better, for the patching made it
weaker and more ncomprehensible than
ever And thus it would be with our die
tionary submitted to photographer for
simplifying. Notwithstanding the vast ac-
emulation of verbiage in our dictionary
it is not to 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
The necessity for coming words to ex-
press ideas and describe objects is always
apparapt NOT ypit hStp p6ipO tho ad
dictionary, and it is seldom that a slang
word is not so appropriate that it does not
occasion a smile at its fitness.
The slang word bogus has been legiti-
matized but suffered from neglect for years.
1t is a Georgia word. William A. Bogus
was Georgia land lottery commissioner
years ago caught i'll rascality in Office. He
issued fraudulent land rights. He fur
nished our vernacular with word for ev-
erything spurious and false. Cant" was
slang word. Alexander Cant of Scotland
was deposed by the synod for divers Sc
ditious and impudent passages in his ser
mons at several places" All seditious
praying and preaching in Scotland was
thereafter called ''cantng."
The word "cabal' owes its origin to the
fact that one of the ministries of Charles
Ii in 1914 was composed of five men the
initial letters OF whose names formed the
word, thus, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham
Arlington and Lauderdale. The word
"contraband" originated with a staff Off
Ger with General Butler in Fortress Mon
roe during the civil war and was immedi
ately adopted by the general. Its singular
appropriateness at once popularized it.
"Filibuster" is a corruption of the com
pound word "hy boat" The word hood
lum" is synonymous with "loafer," anc
originated in San Francisco. The WORD
''snupe" is of New York city origin and il
applied to a child who steals sweetmeat'
and other attractive delicacies.
In the existence and development of what
eventually becomes Il bullfrog there is al
intermediate state after he ceases to be 4
tadpole and before he becomes frog. Ii
is stated that while in this stage he is called
by the boys of Virginia and elsewhere il
the south IA "mugwump"-that is, neither
one thing nor the other. According to an
other authority the word is Michigan fol-
"big Indian" Another says that mug
wump" is an old Algonquin word, mean
ing chief or king, and occurs in Eli
OTIS Indian bible. There are the word,
"sockdolager," "shinplaster, ""skedaddle. ;
do ,rlat