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Chapter III.

SHORT OR LONG WORDS

As has already been said,1 it matters not where or when a word that is in good use originated. Words that come from the Latin, the Greek, or the French may be as suitable for a writer's purposes as those from the Anglo-Saxon, but no more so. It is true, indeed, that in current English the great majority of short words are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and that most of these are so familiar as to be generally understood; but others come from the Latin: e. g., "add,” "fact," "mob," "post," "street;" others from the French: e. g., "bay," "cab," "cash," "corps," "pork," "quart," "zeal;" others from the Italian: e. g., "floss;" others from the Spanish: e. g., "cañon;" others from the Dutch: e. g., "boom," "gulp," "sloop," "yacht;" others from the Persian e. g., "shawl;" others from the Arabic: e. g., "cipher," "sherbet;" others from the Chinese: "tea."

e. g.,

:

Advantages of Short Words. A short word saves time for both writer and reader. Compare "anger" with indignation, "bloody" with sanguinary, "choice" with election or selection, "dead" with deceased, "democratic" with democratical, "get" with procure, "lift" with elevate, "old" with aged or ancient, "read" with peruse, "rise with arise, "round" with around, see with discern, "shorten" with abbreviate, "teacher" with educator, “till” with until, "wages" with remuneration.

1 See page 27.

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In a single in

stance, the gain in time and space is not large; but in a chapter or a volume, the saving of one syllable out of every twenty or every hundred syllables is a great economy.

Another way in which short words save a reader's time is by diminishing the amount of effort needed to get at their meaning. They are, as a rule, more readily understood than longer words; for they are the familiar names of familiar things or of familiar ideas and feelings. They belong less to literary language than to living speech.

To this rule there are, however, a few exceptions. "Color," for example, is longer than hue, "power" than might, "valley" than vale, "writer" than scribe; but "color," "power," "valley," and "writer" are practically shorter than hue, might, vale, and scribe, because they are more familiar.

Advantages of Long Words. - Long words fill an important place in the language. They are needed for the treatment of most subjects that are remote from ordinary events and simple feelings.

Under the complex conditions of modern civilization, the proportion of long to short words is increasing. The vocabulary of politics (to take a single class of subjects) is full of them: e. g., "amendment," "compromise," "congress," "constituents," "convention," "election," "enactment," "inauguration," "legislature," "majority," "plurality," "resolutions." New inventions require new names, and these are often long: e. g., "elevator," "knickerbockers," "locomotive," "machinery," "photograph," "telegraph," "telephone," "thermometer," "velocipede."

One long word is sometimes shorter than several short ones: e. g., constitute than "go to make up," inaugurate than "invest with a new office by solemn rites," innumerable than "too many to be counted." Such words are shorter, not only in the actual number of syllables, but

also in the fact that the meaning is often caught before the whole word can be pronounced.

When a writer's intention is, not to save the reader's time, but to stimulate his attention or to keep his mind on a subject as long as possible, long words are often of great use. In stately compositions in which special pains is taken with sound and cadence, they play an important part: e. g., the works of Sir Thomas Browne, of Jeremy Taylor, of Dr. Johnson, the "Dreams" of De Quincey, the early writings of Ruskin and Macaulay. They are more frequent in Milton than in Chaucer, in Addison's "Vision of Mirza" than in his paper on "Fans," in Irving's "Westminster Abbey" than in his "John Bull," in Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam " than in his "Ballad of the Revenge," in Bryant's "Thanatopsis" than in his "Lines to a Waterfowl."

Big Words. To use long words in order to give an air of magnificence to the petty or the mean is to obscure what might otherwise be clear, to sacrifice sense to sound, to degrade noble language to ignoble ends, or to gratify a distorted sense of humor.

Big words abound in the second-rate novels and newspapers that form the staple of many persons' reading today; but they are no new thing, as is evident from what Mr. James Russell Lowell says in the introduction to "The Biglow Papers, Second Series." "While the schoolmaster," he writes, "has been busy starching our language and smoothing it flat with the mangle of a supposed classical authority, the newspaper reporter has been doing even more harm by stretching and swelling it to suit his occasions. A dozen years ago I began a list, which I have added to from time to time, of some of the changes which may be fairly laid at his door. I give a few of them as showing their tendency, all the more dangerous that their effect, like that of

some poisons, is insensibly cumulative, and that they are sure at last of effect among a people whose chief reading is the daily paper. I give in two columns the old style and its modern equivalent:

OLD STYLE.

Was hanged.

When the halter was put around his neck.

A great crowd came to see.

Great fire.

The fire spread.

House burned.

The fire was got under.

Man fell.

A horse and wagon ran against.

The frightened horse.
Sent for the doctor.

The mayor of the city in a short speech welcomed.

I shall say a few words.

Began his answer.
Asked him to dine.

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element was arrested.

Individual was precipitated. A valuable horse attached to a vehicle driven by J. S., in the employment of J. B., collided with.

The infuriated animal.

Called into requisition the services of the family physician.

The chief magistrate of the metropolis, in well-chosen and eloquent language, frequently interrupted by the plaudits of the surging multitude, officially tendered the hospitalities.

I shall, with your permission, beg leave to offer some brief observations.

Commenced his rejoinder.
Tendered him a banquet.

OLD STYLE. A bystander advised.

He died.

NEW STYLE.

One of those omnipresent characters who, as if in pursuance of some previous arrangement, are certain to be encountered in the vicinity when an accident occurs, ventured the suggestion.

He deceased, he passed out of existence, his spirit quitted its earthly habitation, winged its way to eternity, shook off its burden, etc."

Not a few of the expressions classed by Mr. Lowell under " new style" might have been taken from the publications of to-day. The following do come from these publications:

OLD STYLE.

Died.

Undertaker.

Wheat.

Failure.

Poverty.

Too poor.

Has a money value.

This book was written for

money.

Given for.

Cattle.

Cows' tails.

Four good men.

Flowers.

He was received with enthusiasm.

To play the critic.

NEW STYLE.

Entered into rest.

Director of funerals.

The cereal.

Financial reverses; pecuniary

disaster.

Lack of finances.

Financially unable.

Is convertible into cash.

This book was written with a financial notion in view.

Donated toward the expense of.
Bovine articles.

Bovine continuations.

A noble quartette.

Floral tribute; fragrant decorations.

He was accorded a perfect ovation.

To take on the rôle of a critic.

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