Evening star., 1932-01-22
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES r. TRACEWELL.

what the word buggy" means. except
in relation to place infested with IN
sects. There can be little doubt that
thousands of young children would not
knoW what a blacksmith" was II they
had not been told in Longfellows poem
about that village worthy.
| Livery stable is another comoina-
ton which shortly will be extinct.
There are scores of similar words which,
| once useful because they stood for
lively article, today tend to mean less
and less as invention after invention
takes away their place in the sun.
1t might furnish an evenings diver
sion for an intellectual group to bring
to light one after another more OF these
words which slowly are going out OF
word fashion and which within lew
wears will be strictly back numbers.
They will join the great number OF
| the same type already in the diction-
aries. Just what proportion these con-
stitute in the largest dictionaries We
do not know, but 1t must be very large.
Many of our words belong to the class
of souvenirs. Precious memories cling
to them. Some have the fragrance, OF
forgotten things Others were used a
few years and then fell into neglect,
but the English-speaking world prizes
them for variety Of reasons
Shakespeare may have used this one
and Ben Jonson this. There Is a whole
! list of poetic" expressions which the
poets used and by dint OF their genius
! fixed forever in the minds OF those who
read books.
1t Is because Of these precious souve-
Mrs of language that every one expert
ences the real difference between book
talk" and real talk" d" between the words
used In conversation and those used in
writing.
Every one knows that scarcely any
one writes as he talks. Every one uses
colloquial expressions and constructions
in conversation which he by no means
would use in a letter or article, or at
least in only the most informal and
intimate letters.
This gap, as it were; this strange
| interlude" between speech as spoken
ordinarily and as written is the place
where language experimentation goes on.
Our business world is one of the
busiest experimental word laboratories
| in the world. New prodacts demand
new names. Old products need new
words to call renewed attention to
them. If this process occasionally irri-
tates the person sensitive to words, it is
no more than he ought to expect. In
chemical laboratory he would not
| foam at the mouth because some test
! tube or other gave off noxious fumes
before the distilled product was ready.
| One should feel the same way about
new words and expressions, solely for
| his own peace of mind. Out of these
new coinages a few will find their way
! into the dictionaries. One popular ad-
vertising word. for instance, is not in
the dictionaries of few years ago, but
we understand that it is in the latest
editions.
1t should be realized by those who
are not sympathetic to any but the
words and expressions with which they
are familiar that by these strange
Words-or SO they seem to them-the
language grows and keeps its vigor.
The first sign of the decay of Ian
guage is when its written form becomes
its dominant form. Happily, this is
not yet true Of English. Although our
literature ranks with the greatest in
the world, the living English of every
day speech still remains the final arb-
ter. Only as our books approach to it
and utilize it are they we'll written We
would do well to keep this in mind the
next time some unknown word offendS u.s.