The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-18
WONDERFUL WORDS.
recommendations and Hidden MEM
inEs-knoNy the Derivations.


If we all talked quite correctly we
should not sibillate the last letter in
paris" OF speak of Lyon as "Ly-
ons.'' We should cali the seaport of
Egypt Alexandria, with the penulti-
mate syllables long we should make the
middle syllables long of 'doctrinal,"
"mendicant," Torator," and senator
and accentuate Niagara" There is
line of English poetry, Great Niagara
thund'ring to the sea-" which places
the right Ded Indian sound upon the
word; but the Americans have fixed
the name differently and, since the re-
nowned cataract belongs to them, the
world has accepted their version of its
name. The only safe knowledge of the
sound, meaning and true value OF
words comes from understanding their
derivation. To the well-equipped schol--
ar who has sufficiently mastered Latin
and Greek, with. if possible, Sanskrlt;
an ASiatic tongue or two, German, and
the Latin languages of Europe, almost
every word carries its history upon its
face. Nor without this can people pos
sibly be perfect judges of style or as
sured critics of the real value and just
use~of words. Thoroughly to deal with
words a writer or speaker must be
wax" because the ancients mended
their cracked wooden bowls with wax
and the honest man has no flaw. He
ought to know that candidate" is
Iso-called because aspirants for Office in
Rome walked around the town in white;
that "tribulation' means grinding the
grain out of the ear with the tribulam
the Roman threshing tool; that 'os-
cillate" comes from the little face or
''os' of Pan, which swung in the classic
vineyards to keep the birds away; and
that a "poltroon" is police truncatuS"
"a person who cuts off his thumb to
escape serving in the national army
A word is really one of the most Won
derful things of mans creation and &c
serves to be respected, properly under
stood and carefully employed and pro-
nounced. 1t may often hide within it
noble moving histories, though lightly
used just as the clod which the plough
man turns may conceal a treasure.
Take, for instance, the word 'colophon,"
which printers apply to the close of a
printed volume Which of them asks
why it should mean 1.-The end?" or re-
calls the fact that Colophon was that
one of the twelve Ionian confederate
cities which furnished cavalry to the
league and these horSemen' were so
good and valiant and they always fin
ished off a battle VIGOROUSLY so that
to come to Colophon was to put the
last touch to a business? 1t is greatly
to be desired that in the course of their
teaching private and public instructors
everywhere would give themselves more
pains to explain and elicit for their stu
dents the inner history ~and force of
words. Few, indeed, there are, in any
language. which will not yield up to
patient and enlightened analysis some
| illuminating record of how they come
upon the tongues of men. Some are as
ancient as the first sound that was
babbled by child to its mother; some
have whole histories in them; some ere
new, ugly and incorrect and, like
scientist" authoritarian and "elec-
ltrocution,' veX the scholarly ear with
their base construction.-Lond Tele-
graph.