Evening star., 1949-02-25
This and That
By Charles E. Tr1ce1DeU

IRVING STREET.
Dear Sir,
In regard to your recent article. in which
you used the term to rid out the word Is
redd, not rid.
1T is pure Scotch. All my life we heard
my mother say 'redd up the dishes
You can find it in all good dictionaries.
Very respectfully. M. B. r"
Our correspondent is right.
In many families today the good old
Scotch words have been corrupted. as it
were, into English equivalents.
Thus many really say, Ito rid out" when
they mean Ito redd," the act of clearing
away, removing. setting in order.
They think of it, however as rid, just as
we say ito get rid of cold"
secondary definition of redd is that
which is, or is to be, cleared away.
An old legal phrase had void and redd."
Our more common word. rid, comes down
through middle English ridden, redden, to
remove. to free or clear, or disencumber.
There is another fine word. Disencumber.
But you won't see it much.
** -
Scotch people in the Middle West often
spoke of lazy people as being work brittle" ;"
or at least that was the way 1t sounded
to the young ones.
1t probably was nearer right as work
breckle," or "brickle," fragile.
All such phrases are repeated as heard by
children, who mostly never stop to ask how
they are spelled, or even exactly what they
mean.
We were speaking to young Polish girl
who, as product of the schools, speaks
perfect English.
She was studying Polish.
Did you speak Polish at home?" we
asked. Her English diction was perfect.
"Of course" she replied, but not good
Polish. 1t was very sloppy. It hurts to
think of it now
European peoples are fortunate in being
ready linguists.
Learning new tongues comes easily to them,
in contrast with the way some Americans,
let us say those of English, Scotch and Irish
ancestry, tumble around.
Each tongue has genius of its own.
English-spea peoples may salve their
consciences. as poor linguiStS. by stating and
believing that English contains bit of all
other languages.
1t is a marvellous tongue. with history
as good as any. While it lacks the clarity,
capacity to make itself clear, if one tries to
make himself clear. On the other hand,
English is wonderful for evasion if one so
desires. Consider some legal documents, or
what is known as Federal prose
He or she who has love of the native
tongue will think twice before being offended
with slang phrases.
Out of them often grow the words which
make English so rich.
Especially in idiomatic phrases are re-
tained the old ways of the race, odd words
and meanings silently dropped but for them.
In this way we hold onto something of
the past, while at the same time going for
ward with the new. The misgiving so many
honest people feel with recent political de-
velopments is that those who engineer them
seem too willing to cut off all connection
with the past. But just as no one lives to
himself alone (no man is an island), so no
living group of humans can, except shame
fully, look around boastfully as if others
had not been there before. The sneer about
1.-The horse and buggy days" was enough to
cause decent folk to be afraid of the future.
If there is 1nalign principle in the uni
verse, as some think, surely it must be on
the lookout for Nation which on one hand
holds up motto, I'm God we trust" and in
the other a slogan about 1.-The horse and
buggy days" Words come from the minds
and hearts of men, and by their words shall
they be judged.