Chapter II: Preface: To the New Edition

The unexpected favor with which this work has been received by the public from year to year, since its publication in 1873, has made the author anxious to render it more worthy of regard. He has, therefore, carefully revised the work, corrected some errors, and added two new chapters, one on “Onomatopes,” the other on “Names of Men,” besides many pages on the subjects of the other chapters.

Professor G. P. Marsh, in his “Lectures on the English Language,” quotes the saying of a distinguished British scholar of the last century, that he had known but three of his countrymen who spoke their native language with uniform grammatical accuracy; and the Professor adds that “the observation of most persons acquainted with English and American society confirms the general truth implied in this declaration.” In this statement, made by one of the most eminent philologists of the day, is found, at least, a partial justification of works like the present, if they are properly written. The author is well aware that, in writing such a book, he is obnoxious to the complaint of Goethe, that “everybody thinks that, because he can speak, he is entitled to speak about language;” he is aware, too, that in his criticisms on the misuses and abuses of words, he has exposed himself to criticism; and it may be that he has been guilty of some of the very sins which he has condemned. If so, he sins in good company, since nearly all of his predecessors, who have written on the same theme, have been found guilty of a similar inconsistency, from Lindley Murray down to Dean Alford, Breen, Moon, Marsh, and Fowler. If the public is to hear no philological sermons till the preachers are faultless, it will have to wait forever. “The only impeccable authors,” says Hazlitt, “are those who never wrote.”

It is hardly necessary to add that the work is designed for popular reading, rather than for scholars. How much the author is indebted to others, he cannot say. He has been travelling, in his own way, over old and well worn ground, and has picked up his materials freely from all the sources within his reach. _Non nova, sed nové_, has been his aim; he regrets that he has not accomplished it more to his satisfaction. The world, it has been truly said, does not need new thoughts so much as it needs that old thoughts be recast. There are some writers, however, to whom he has been particularly indebted; they are Archbishop Trench, the Rev. Matthew Harrison, author of “The Rise, Progress, and Present Structure of the English Language,” Professor G. P. Marsh, and especially Archdeacon F. W. Farrar, the last of whom in his three linguistic works has shown the ability to invest the driest scientific themes with interest. A list of the books consulted will be found on pages 479, 480.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORDS 1

CHAPTER II.

THE MORALITY IN WORDS 62

CHAPTER III.

GRAND WORDS 105

CHAPTER IV.

SMALL WORDS 139

CHAPTER V.

WORDS WITHOUT MEANING 158

CHAPTER VI.

SOME ABUSES OF WORDS 177

CHAPTER VII.

SAXON WORDS, OR ROMANIC? 194

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SECRET OF APT WORDS 210

CHAPTER IX.

THE SECRET OF APT WORDS (continued) 229

CHAPTER X.

ONOMATOPES 242

CHAPTER XI.

THE FALLACIES IN WORDS 257

CHAPTER XII.

THE FALLACIES IN WORDS (continued) 295

CHAPTER XIII.

NAMES OF MEN 323

CHAPTER XIV.

NICKNAMES 345

CHAPTER XV.

CURIOSITIES OF LANGUAGE 367

CHAPTER XVI.

COMMON IMPROPRIETIES OF SPEECH 424

INDEX 481

WORDS; THEIR USE AND ABUSE.