Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-05-25
USELESS vERs,AcE.

cepernaoos words Eound IN the
A number of obsolete words are to be
1ound In Webster's dictionary. They
.oP ont ON almost every page of the
org book. and apparently are inserted
1or no other purpose than to continue
the growth of the work and increaae
the difficulty of acquiring our laneuaDe
some uea of them may be gathered
nom the following letter, written bv
an alleged poet to an editor who had
treated his poetry with derision:
StR;-You have behaved like an fmpetiet.
nous scroglei Like those who, enyious Of anv
nsscn ce,situoe, carry their ungicity to the
Asnt OF creating symposically the fecund
words which my poliymathfc genius Nae. ,ifh
1Derty 70 abltRate the tongues of the veetleasf
or, you have crassly parodied INV own nat
W oas Is though they were trangrams win
over the atramental inerat.tude vhich no.
cnAmiered even my indiscerptible heart lam
silent ON the focillation which INV coadinvancv
mus' nave given you when offered to become
~" tan.or ana admfnicle. I.win not sneak
OF the hppitude, the oblepsy. Won have
SHOWN In exacerSating me. one vhoss
genius you should have approached
vain mental discalceation So tell Won vjth.
OUT supervacaneous words. nothing win render
ignoscfbie your conduct to me-. 7 vnrn va,
that would vellicate your nose n 7 thc,sS,
INST any moral diArthrosis could he thereby
periormed-h thought should not tmpienor.
.ee my reputation. Go! tachyRraphic scroele
Dsno Win your Grass inquinate fantors; draw
S Sox, from the thought. II you care of
oaYins synchronically lost the existimation Of
sne greatest post since Milton!
Ridiculous as these words NAV .eem
nearly all of them are to be found i'm
Websters unabridged dictionary, and
lew OF them are declared obsolete.
Many robust Saxon words which met
al requirements have been thrown ont
TO make room for words of less strength
ana force, merely to satisfy the ex-
tfemely polite taste of feeble minds.
ihus the language is weakened and
losses much of its power of expression
in straining after euphony. The pure
and good old Saxon word s.sweat- wa.
good enough for our forefathers, but
some OF our dilettanti photographers
declared 1T vulgar and now we have at
least three words in our dictionary to
express the idea of water passing
through the pores of the skin to the
surface-namely, perspire, transpire
and sweat.
After this interminable mixture of
words is stirred into our dictionary our
photographers further cast Egyptian
darkness around the searcher after in
formation 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 mystif-
cation 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 die
tionary of ope-third the number
of words dumped into ours by
photographers. They find the inferior
number of words in common use by
their people fully adequate to an ele-
CANT expression of their ideas without
wandering into other lands to gather
foreign words, while our photographers
are constantly gathering foreign words
into our already-overtaxed collection.
When the penal code of New York
state became so mystifying that even q
Philadelphia lawyer foundered in it
and it was discovered that there was a
law to counterfeit the effect of every
other law and render it nuga-
tory, 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 |
incomprehensible than ever. And thus |
Il would be with our dictionary sub
mitted to q photographer for simplify
ing Notwithstanding the vast accu-
mutation of verbiage in our dictionary it |
is not to be wondered at that our writ |
ers and speakers are at times forced to |
coin words to express their ideas and |
that the less learned follow the exam
pie in the coming of what we term |
s.slang words, principally because they
are used by the masses and are not yet |
honored by places in the dictionary.
But they land there in due time.-N.
Y. Herald.