Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1897-12-23
CoLLoQUlALIsMs,
Americans Not Guilty of the Charge Of
Corrupting the Language.

Americans Not Guilty of the Charge of
Corrupting the Language.
Are we Americans 'corrupting'
the English undefiled of Londoni
Not long ago heard an Englishman
state that over here they quite often
say pants for trousers. I told
him he was wrong and that the word
was only applied to articles of un-
derwear. Still I would have been
just as decided on the subject of
'vest" for "waistcoat. - And yet
only recently received from Lon
don tailor bill on which the word
west" yves distinctly written. In
reality "waistcoat' is an incorrect
word as used here, since the gar
ment is not coat for the waist at
all and does not in the faintest de-
gree resemble one. The English are
intensely fond of the word lovely"
They use it on all occasions. The
habit seems even to be growing upon
them. They tell you of lovely
sunset, lovely horse, a lovely game
of golf, a lovely cross country ride,
lovely nosegay. Their "quite so'
always diverts me. AS rule, it is
so entertainingly incorrect. An
American will say, for example, 81
had just got into town, I had not
been able to dine on the train, and
was almost ready to snatch their
bags of provender from the noses of
the cab horses at the station"
"Quite so," smiles the Englishman.
You say, Imagine my displeasure,
my disgust at such an occurrence.
"Quite so," you are sympathetioal-
ly answered. "Cravat' is word
you seldom meet with in England.
1t is invariably "tie," a word which
has slight authority to exist at all in
the shape of noun, and one which
we almost solely use in connection
with matters of sport. Fancy" is
charming popular English phrase.
You love to hear it from the lips of
a pretty woman, though you hear
it from all sorts of lips. It is the
equivalent of our "Just thinkl" and
is much more graceful. Of course
this question of international YER
balism is an endless one.
Our hideous II guess'' you never
hear, but II expect" is often used
wrongly, as II expect you didn't en-
joy yourself yesterday" etc.
Sick, }" of course, is hardly under
stood here as anything but "nause-
ated, though it is good old Shakes
pearean word and one of much SOL
ider claim than GILL" Our "drug
store" is unknown to British ear or
eye. Both prefer chemist" and
with far better taste. Still, why
they have abandoned "apot ecary"
cannot see. Is it not, after all, an
apter word than "chemist" in this
sensei We speak of the great Fara-
lay as "a chemist There is an
American shoe store,' rather
;launtingly set forth as such, in Re-
gent street, but this is obviously in
tended to attract the tourist. "Store"
for Shop is as much discounte-
nanced as elevator" for lift The
American habit of calling maya
zine of commerce ''store" cannot
be defended, but elevator" is a
much more sensible term than
lift, which is almost classible un-
der the head of slang. If you asked
an Englishman which depot would
be the best wherefrom to take the
train for Brighton, you would run
the risk of not being understood.
Why we call a railway station a
depot" is hard to explain. II is not
taken from the French in this con-
nection, since "gare" is invariably
employed throughout France, and
depot has no such definition. And
SO the colloquial vocabulary of our
English and of England's English
has twisted itself wrong or kept it.
self right in either country. Alto
gether about an equal number of
faults and inaccuracies exist on Ell
ther side. The instant we feel our
selves entitled to blame them they
can seize upon logical pretext for
blaming us. They speak the Ian
,uage far more unsteady and en-
sagingly than we do, but we both
speak it with about the same ran
dom disregard. Collier Weekly.