THE "LOOK" OF A WORD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1497, 20 July 1912, Page 9

THE "LOOK" OF A WORD.

When a grammarian or dictionnry-mnko-r declnres a word or a phrase outlawed, he is more frequently actuated bv subconscious antipathies than by coiilonnity to a standard. That is the contention advanced by I'rof. Fred. Newton .Scott, of the University of Michigan, in an extremely interesting paper on "Verbal Taboos" in the ".School Review" for June. Professor Scott hns foiind by laboratory experimentation that lisrds are capable of arousing aversion, quite like sounds, taste.?, colours, and forms. "]Katioualiy or irrotionalljVwrote Cardinal Xewino.li, "I have an " undying, jjevcrdying hatred to ,'is bring' (in such a connection as 'the house is being built'), whatever arguments are brought in its favour." Lowell sneaks of that abominable word "reliable," and Professor Genung of the wretched word "enthuse." "My pot aversion," wrote Professor -IVilliain. James, "is postal card , for postcard." • ...•■-' On' tho basis of two hundred and fifty tests, Profe-ior Scott finds ■ that word's are disliked first, Iweausc the- sound is displeasing; second, becaue its printed appearance displeas'es; third, /because it rouses unpleasing images; and, fourth, because it .is asaciated with unpleasant memories of childhood. • The list of objectionable'words is ' altogether too long to quote. But o.'io word, "victuals," must be mentioned because it has the distinction of displeasing eiglity-one. out of 250 persons. "In ten cases the aversion is so great that tho/sound of the word at tab:e takes away the subject's appetite." We hasten to recount the results of-Pro-fessor Scott's --experiment with a lino of Tennyson. Students were asked to describe-, improniiptu, the images aroused by the word "pimpernel" in : "The pimpernel dozed on the lea." To four men the following sensations were brought up: ... .. "(1.) Tho werd pimpernel- calls up in my mind tho image of a pampered cur. Ke is a'worthless brute wlto spends most of his time sleeping in the warm sunshine. : "(2.) The -pimpernel seems tome to be a small animal resembling an eel. It .has short, rounded ears, and bright, beadlike eyes. As I imagine, it, the pimpernel is lying half-asleep in the grass near the shore of a lake,'ready to slip into the water at the slightest sound.,- '-, r "(3.) A pimpernel seems to .me to bo a tramp or gypsy.' He lips on tho bank in the sun with an old, battered hat drawn over lids face. "(•0,1 do not know what the word means, but it instantly suggests to me a small lizard covered with pimples or warts. Tho imago flashed upon my: mind as soon as.the word, was spoken, and is still vivid aiid distinct. Although I never heard the word bofcro, I seem always to have known it, and to have af> tached this meaning' to it. I am absurdly confident that this is the truo meaning." Other students- conceived of a pimpernel .a-s a frog, as a small deer, as a dragon:Jly/'.and",as a small-tree or-shrub like a; prickly pear. ' .-■ ; ; '---.