MODERN BREVITY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 20

MODERN BREVITY

WORDS SELDOM USED

Modern tendency to brevity, in all things,- from skirts to speech, has deprived us of the use of many a comprehensive word in our langiiago, writes "Ivory D," in the Melbourne "Argus." Words of m^j than one syllable, or at.most two, are fast slipj ping into the limbo .of the obsolete. Writers and'advertisers alike know the telling effect of the one-syllable word, yet 1 the world-wide craze for crossword puzzles might well revive interest in some of our forgotten language, and recover a few of the words, too good to be lost. I have no wish to revive the archaic and the obsolete either in speech or writing. But where in our modern language have we a substitute for such a word as "mumpsimus," to describe an error, or prejudice obstinately clung to? It originates in the story of an old monk, who in his ignorance had always substituted "mumpsimus" for "sumpsimus" in his, Latin prayers. When the error was pointed out to him, after many years, he replied: "I'm not going to change my old mumpsimus for your new sumpsimus." A great word that, to hurl at your opponent in argument: "That's your old mumpsimus!" Then the word " carriwitchet," though four syllables in length, is surely worth keeping. It is one of those onomatopoeic words which in its tripping syllables carries its own meaning, "Thee and thy earriwitchets." The subject is endless, and probably of more interest to the philologist than to the layman. But if only as entertainment an occasional perusal of any good dictionary may bo recommended. In the romance of words will be found tradition, folklore, the history of many a quaint old custom, and matter of endless interest. Take the list of words beginning with the prefix "eu." So few of them are in daily use. Yet if we do not consider and remember such a good word as "eupeptic," when we find it, it hardly describes the condition in which wo should find our.selves,;l- ; . . ■The word "quidnunc" has passed out of use, and "quintessence" is now- so rarely used that it is strange to most of us. I found it as a child, when someone had the wit to call mo "the quintessence of a silly beetle." And why do modern women not revive the use of "eleutheromania?" It merely moans a craving for freedom, but the word must have-died with Macaulay. 1