Smyrna times., 1903-01-14
TOO FAMILIAR TO SUIT
TASTES OF MANY PEO9 /.
THE SCIENTIFIC FAD OF CLOTHING OLD
THINGS IN NEW TERMS.
Some Words the Meaning of Which are Com
monty Misunderstood How the Verbal
Aliases are CIeverIy Applied.

haling a quantity of carbon dioxido,
the man in the street began at once in
quiring what carbon diOxide was.
As a matter of fact, carbon dioxide
is merely another name for carbonic
acid gas. one of the products of COM
bustiOn and a constituent of atmOs-
pheric air.
Carbonic acid gas is known by sew
eral different names, as, for instance,
carbon diOXide carbonic oxide and car
bonic anhydride.
Consumption as a name for a terri
bic and widespread disease is known
and understood by practically every
man, woman and child in England.
But the medical fraternity, ever on the
lookout for something new in the way
OF professional nomenclature, elected
some years back to call it phthisis,
and then just when that unspellable
word began to be known and recog-
nized they evolved yet another-tuber-
culosis.
And as with consumption so with
most other complaints. A quarter of a
century ago even eminent physicians
were content to speak of smallpox, of
typhoid fever, of lockjaw. Today they
are called variola, enteric and tetanus
respectively.
A doctor when giving evidence before
an ignorant east end jury the other
day said that the immediate cause Of
death was "a violent and prolonged
fit of combined epistaxis and stomator-
rhagia." 1t would. one would think,
have beer far easier fol- him TO have
spoken of a bleeding at the nose and
mouth, and he would at all events have
had the satisfaction of making himself
understood.
Most people now living can remem-
Der the time when bacteria were known
generically as animalculR-a not very
strictly scientific definition. perhaps,
but one easily understandable, and con-
veying, moreover, a distinct idea to
any one of ordinary education and in
telligence.
For that very reason, doubtless, the
title in question was voted out of date
IL was substituted. This means. liter
ally, little sticks" certainly most
novel definition. but enc that scarcely
strikes the average lay mind as being
either lucid or suitable. Nevertheless
1t was accepted. and at last became
familiar to the man in the street.
That of course could not be tolerat-
Cd TY11o rrfr,
word which conveyed any meaning to
anybody outside his own charmed cir
Gle! The idea is both degrading and
prepOsterOus; so he set to work forth
with and invented a whole host of ter
rife verbal aliases.
He called them for example, schiz-
omycetes. neurOmuskelzellen, megacoc-
ci and polymorphonuclear leucocytes,
as well as half a hundred other things;
while for the chemical substances in
cidental to the science he invented such
delightful terms as ''tetrahydropara-
neutrality-suspicious." and "tetramethyl-
diamido-triphenyl-c yl-carbinOl-oxaIate"
The craze. too is getting commoner
among other than scientists. Take the
word ''reeking." for instance. and ask
your friends what they understand by
1t. "ReekingY one will say why,
reeking means dripping with moisture,
soaked with wet" You will derive
some amusement from his surprise
when you tell him that reeking means
smoking. steaming." A chimney can
reek. When a horse reeks with mois-
ture, it is because its fianks smoke and
steam.
The change from the real meaning to
that given it in popular. present day
phraseOlOgy can easily be traced. Any
thing very wet will reek in frosty
weather; so the wetness has been as
sumed to be the real characteristic of
reek
Then there is 'lurid," which nine
people out of ten use in an entirely
wrong sense. Ask a man what color
lurid is, and he may answer correctly,
but the chances are that he will say,
"Red tame. orange or bright yellow"
OF course, lurd means smoky or dull
color. London fog is lurid. Thick, suf-
fOcating smoke is lurid.
Lulu and jvid are almost synony-
nous Lurid flames are flames choked
and hidden lv smoke. A lurid sunset
is aut one. but one dull ana
- .... e.eerless.
OF course. the use of verbal aliases
is not an alS)lutely new departure. 1t
is only that we Of this generation in
our wild strivings after novelty have
so enormously increased and multiplied
them. The taste of our grandfathers
and great-grandfathers lay rather in
the direction of using over and over
again two or three long and uncommon
words
Thus Observation-Disclosures, as
synonym of fame, eminence, occurs
and recurs with almost depressing reg
ularity in the plays of old pre- Eliza
bethan dramatists and is even used by
Shakespeare on occasion.
1t was partly in ridicule of the silly
custom of using this and other similar