Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-18

speech. The languages in which we con verse with one another and by which we write are the composite productions of many ages, and our noble English tongue. so copious, flexible and rich, is derived from other tongues which have been spoken and written on this earth of ours, during the long centuries.
 All the languages of Europe have a certain kinship and common ancestry in oriental tongues. We talk rather stupidly about dead languages, by which we mean such languages as Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Practical men dis cuss the question whether or not their sons and daughters shall spend valuable time in acquiring these. One man de- cides that his boy shall not study Latin. as it would be, in his view, waste of time. but he is quite willing to let him study Spanish and French, which are widely spoken tongues of to-day, and both of which are direct descendants of the magnificent Latin tongue.
 
 When you take up the dictionary, you see at once that certain words are de- rived from certain sources. A word in common use may come from Latin or Greek, an Arabic, Teutonic or from an Anglo-Saxon source. As rule the sonorous, reverberating and splendid words are derived from the dignified and strenuous Latin. which was the lan- guage of old Rome in the days when her eagles conquered the world.
 Words derived from the Greek are often of honeyed sweetness and capti- vating music and at the same time are extremely picturesque, single word in Greek often containing all that we would express in phrase or sentence and bringing up to the initiated scene full of color and life fit for a painters brush. '''i1 l''.''., .a. ,;'. .! !s 1. 1.
 Anglo-Saxon words are usually terse, brief and full of pith. They are often one-syllabled words. The dictionary will show you this.
 A thoughtfurwrite has said: Among the many ends which We may propose to ourselves in the study of language, there is but one which is common and necessary to every man. mean such facility in eomprehending and such skill in using his mother-tongue that he can play we'll his part in the never ceasing dialogue which. whether be. tween the living and the living. or the living and the dead. whether breathed from the lips or figured with the pen. takes up so large a part of the life of every one of us.
 A nice. exact and accurate use of words. the ability to choose the word that precisely fits the thought. cannot be obtained by anyone who does not know the dictionary. For example. to take a familiar illustration. one hears a careless person say of wooden build ing falling into ruin: Look at that dilapidated house. What pity" But it is only stone house that can be said, strictly speaking. to be dilapidated and in the very word there is picture of stones falling apart and mouldering in confusion.
 The man who would address an au- dienee with success and shire in ths reciprocal talk of the drawing-room or set good example in speech to his chil- dren must know something of the real meaning of words.
 
 Apart from this. if one were stranded in a country inn. with no other book than the dictionary wherewith to while away the time. he might find no little satisfaction in studying what Edmund Rowland Sill happily called the eIang- tint of words. There are words which carry the force of blows There are words which have the ring of clashing steel There are other words which sound like buslss blowing upon the blast. R. L. Stevenson was a past-mas- ter in the use of living words which clothed his fervent thought. Rudyard KipIing has the same happy magic in finding the enact word and the exsct phrase
 Take some words of everyday use. such as cold. friEid. chill: or hot. arid. torrid. At once each word peculiarly suggests the condition t describes.
 Take the word rzbbls. defined in the dictionary as "a brawling. disorderIy mob or crowd This one word comes to us through the old Dutch. where it means to zzbbIs: through the German. where it means to prsttls fooliEhly: through the Swiss. where it means an uprozr. through the Latin. where it means rave: through the Gaslic. where it means a tumHItuous orous of rough or lou people Ore little common word. yet how much it conveys and hoz much of history ff contains.
 Take the word quivers EE1ra nay mean q case for zrrovs. or. on the othsf hand. nay sst ou th0uEhts toward the sHfvsring of the ssrfh sb01t to s1aks, or the trembling of the lezf upon the tree
 Take the common word eu0rsn- whosTsr is ezEzssf on board cr cor1- uittse krors fhs lnpcszisElIiT of Fro- osezfEx win kzzf.sss mrtn zuorzn w present. This wurd ncw aEuE4s2 irtp srer7dsv EzEszk fz ps-- Lsztz srs szr-