Bismarck daily tribune., 1903-04-06
VERBAL ALIASES.
WORDS THAT GET TOO FAMILIAR 70
SUIT SOME TASTES.

When the report was recently circu-
lated that prominent public man had
lost his life through accidentally In
haling quantity Of carbon diOxide.
the man In the street began at once in
quiring what carbon diOxide was
AS q matter OF fact, carbon di0xide
Is merely another name for carbonic
acid gas, one Of the products Of COM
bustion aud Z constituent Of atmos.
pheric air.
Carbonic acid gas Is known by sev.
eral different names, rs, for instance.
carbon dioxide, carbonic oxide and car,
bonic anhydride.
| Consumption as name for terri
BILE 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-
culOss
And as with consumption so with
most other complaints. A quarter Of q
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
ut Of combined epistaxis and stomator-
rhagia." 1t would. one would think,
have been far easier for 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 We're known
generically as animalcule-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title in question was voted out of date
and old fashioned and the word ''hacl-
IT. was substituted. This means. liter.
ally, little sticks" certainly Il most
novel definition, but one that scarcely
strikes the average lay mind as being
either lucid or suitable Nevertheless,
it was accepted, and at last became
familiar to the man in the street
That Of course could not be tolerat.
ed. Imagine bacteriologist using
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 whole host of ter
rifle verbal aliases
He called them for example, schiz
Omycetes. neuromuskelzellen. megacoc-
ci and polyniorphonuclear 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.
methyloxyquinoline' and ''tetramethyl-
diamido-triphenyl- l-carbinol- -oxalate"
The craze. too, is getting comnoner
among other than scientists. Take the
word ''reekipg.' for instance. and ask
your friends what they understand by
It. "Reeking?" 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 u horse ree5s with mois
ture. it is because its fianks smoke and
steam.
The change from the real meaning to
that given 1t in popular. present day
phraseology can easily be traced. Any
thing very wet will reek in frosty
weather; SO the wetness has been as.
! surned 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 flame. orange or bright yellow"
OF course. lurid means smoky or dull
color. London fog is lurid. Thick. suf-
locating smoke is lurid.
Lurid and livid are almost synony.
nous. Lurid flames are flames choked
and hidden by smoke. A lurid sunset
Is not a brilliant one. but one dull and
gray and cheerless.
OF course. the use of verbal aliases
is not an absolutely new departure. II
is only that we Of this generation in
our wild strivings after novelty have
30 enormously increased and multiplied
them. The taste Of cur 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 q
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
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