WORDS.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1925, Page 4

WORDS.

“Words,” wrote the poet Donne in one of his letters, “are our subtillest and delicatest outward creatures, being composed of thoughts and breath.” They are also endowed with a chame-leon-like faculty for changing. In the course of comparatively few years a term may acquire an entirely new .significance. Expressions, for example, in daily use. such as “nice,” “silly,” “quaint” were employed by our ancestors in quite a dilferent sense. The literary detective finds a keen deliglit in identifying words in all their strange disguises, and compiling tlieir dossiers. One of the most accomplished of these sleuths is Professor Logan Pearsall Smith, whose “Words and Idioms” contains a vast amount of curious and interesting lore. He shows us that a living language is dynamic. It never stands still. It is in a continual process of alteration, discarding terms that have outlived their usefulness in the ordinary currency of speech, or retaining them for specialised purposes, borrowing from other lands, coining neologisms, often with the aid of the classics, sometimes even admitting slang expressions whose utility makes us overlook the stigma of their birth. Professor Pearsall Smith is as a lexicographer rather than a philologist, and two lines of investigation in particular have engaged nis attention. One of these is ''Semantics,” the study ol the- meanings as distinct troin the forms of words; “the history ol the terms of our speech with relorenee to the history of the ideas they embody—the origins, the travels and t ranstormntious of these ideas in various epochs and countries.” The other aspect of language with which lie is bore concerned is the teleological, that is, the study of di Hero nt Forms of speech not from the point of view of their history, but with regard to their value 1 efficiency as a. means of expression. To the first category belongs the essay on English sea-terms. The English are soa-laring nation, and in tlieir wanderings to and fro over the lace ol the waters they have been exposed to foreign linguistic inlluenccs. Tlieir nautical voeabula is vigorous and copious, very rlmractc istic of the hardy and practical people who habitually employ it. A'et if we examine these short

and vivid words which seem so essentially English, we find that most ul them are not of English origin at all. Tn an agricultural 'district tin* names of familiar things such as fields, animals, crops, holdings, and so forth ale for the most part genuine old English words. But when we pass to the seashore we notice a marked change in the terms in common use. Ihe words for the coast and its features, lor ships and their adjuncts, for many sen birds and fishes are a set of borrowed names, a polyglot mixture drawn ultimately from Greek. Latin, Italian. Spanish, and Dutch sources. Two of them indeed come to us from the primitive Aryan, lrom which most European languages and Persian and Hindoo arc derived. The name for the canoe wo have not inherited directly. hut have burrowed il lrom the Greek or Latin in the words “nautical,” “navy.” and tho like. Ihe Arvan word for a paddle, how'over, descends to us in our verb to “row.” and also in “rudder,” the original rudder, of course, being a. paddle nr oar. After these very ancient words the next, in antiquity are a few terms which date from a period when the ancestors of Greek's, Romafns, Teutons. Cells, and (Slavs, all spoke the same language. Among these are “fish,” “salt.” and “mere.” Next we have a group of Teutonic words— “sea” and “ship,” “north.” “south.” “east.” and “west,” “whale." “salt.” are examples. Next is an infusion from the Alcditerranoau. Homeric Greek (with France as an intermediary) gave us "dolphin," “prow.” and “ocean.” “Anchor” and "pirate” are later Greek words. Latin has supplied us with a multitude of sea trims. including “poop,” “(arroit,” and “lobsjer.” AYe have even levied upon the Arabs, to whom we owe “admiral.” “furl.” and “aver-

age.” Indeed, ail down the centuries the mariners of England have brought hnlint from the ends of the earth linguistic trophies. Tlieir language is a mosaic. Our sea terms come from remote countries, and are “embedded in our English vocabulary like jetsam washed from afar, but so worn by file waves that it lies almost tindisli guisliahle among ilm other objects tlm. .strew our coasts. Rut words arc like -caslicll, they have tlieir voices and are full of old echoes." Another very interesting essay deals with "Four Romantic Words.” I Ili 'C are '‘romant ic” ilselt. "originally, "genius." and "i real ive." Each has had an extraordinary history, and lias adapted itself to a variety of purpose,-.. Let u- consider the last-men-tioned. At the outset ‘■romance" was the term applied in the Aliddle Ages In a composition in a Romance language that is, in French. Spanish, or Italian, which are derived from "Roman'' or Latin. Many of these compositions were tales of knight errantry and advent lire, in which supernatural agencies were active. 'I hey were long, incoherent, and rambling, full of digressions and confused allegory. This characteristic led to the word romantic being used as the antithesis to “classical.” classical literature lieing associated with lucidity, repose, and precision of form. Then il came to denote an abstract quality. in which imagination was the principal clement. Thus we have the romantic movement in the close of the 18th century, it reaction against the formalism of the age of I’ope and his successors, and from this the transition In its present popular significance was natural. The English have been great borrowers. hut. as we see from "English AVortls Abroad,” they have given freely. First in importance are those which, relate to polities and social organisation. That “jury.” “budget,” ■‘meeting.” “speech.” “pamphlet,” have been adopted not only in Franco but- in other countries “is remarkable evidence of the impression made by (lie English methods of free government, and free political discussion, and the way in which these methods have been imitated by other nations.” Also terms, such as ‘‘constitution,” “committee,” “vole,” “parliament.” “representative.” are not of English origin. But the meaning they have acquired is distinctively English, and they, too. have crossed the Channel. Next are sporting terms. The vocabularies of racing, football, tennis, golf, and the ling have been borrowed on masse by the Continent, and if France has enriched our speech with many words connected with eating and drinking. England has repaid the debt. In “roast beef.” beef-steak,” “plum-pud-ding.” “ale,” “rum.” “whisky,” “grog.” and the like, which have been taken over bv the French without alteration, we see taitlifuliy reflected the taste for solid fare and strong drinks, and that John Bull. whom Ttiino described as “iinuri-shod by meat and porter and sustained by bodily exercise and boxing.” AA e may note, in conclusion, that, a knowledge of local usages and words may have practical importance. The author tells us that a witness in a Yorkshire criminal trial was able to save a man from a heavy sentence by explaining that the “noife” with which ho admitted he had struck a neigliliour was not a “knife,” hut simply nil old dialect term lor “fist.”