Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1933. A LEXICOGRAPHER AT PLAY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1933, Page 10

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1933. A LEXICOGRAPHER AT PLAY

The statement cabled from London a fortnight ago, that Dr. Frank Vizetelly, in the new Funk and Wagnalls dictionary, of which he is the editor, has given official recognition to the protogram and the telescopic word, was doubtless correct, but it was also misleading. The reference is to the new edition of the New Standard Dictionary, which was being advertised, in New York shortly before Christmas and was evidently published in London at the same time; and the plain implication of the cabled statement is that this latest thing in dictionaries is giving "official recognition" to these classes of words for the first time. But the telescopic word, better known as the portmanteau word,,, has already received "official recognition" from the dictionaries, including, of course,, the New Standard itself, and for the1 simple and the only adequate reason that it was firmly established in the language. As we pointed out on Saturday last,, the. word "chortle," the invention of Lewis Carroll, who at the same time invented the term "portmanteau word" to describe it, was'recognised.by the Oxford Dictionary exactly 40 years ago.! To. what we said on this point in our previous article it may be worth adding that, though the term "port--manteau word" is only some sixty years old, the process, whether voluntary or involuntary, was in existence long before. In his Etymological Dictionary of Modern English Professor Weekley quotes an excellent example- from Samuel Pegge's "Anecdotes of the English Language"' which was published in 1803: . • One [-word] was ingeniously invented by a maidservant, viz., clantastical, which she contrived should express both fantastical and clandestine. Mr. Weekley's modern'examples include "acrobatics," "Bakerloo," ! "electrocute," "Eurasian," "gerry? mander,". "perambucot," and1 "squarson." "John Bull" of the 7th June, 1919, is credited with the happy description of the "Daily Herald" as "the Hurishevik Labour paper," and William de Morgan, "Old- Madhouse," eh. i., with the following: A depraved motor-car comes belching out its hideous stench as it petrollicks along the road.. A consultation of the latest Webster for the purpose of seeing whether the German word "strafe" has been Americanised, as it certainly has been Anglicised, revealed the remarkable possibility that in the English dialect word "strafe," also spelled "straif," we may have an example of a portmanteau . word more than five centuries old. The phrase "w'ayues and strayues" (waifs' and strays) occurs in "Piers Plowman," and Webster suggests that the word "straif" may be the product of a confusion between "stray" %and "waif." The only novelty in the claim made by Dr. Vizetelly on behalf of the latest edition of the New Standard Dictionary is in the nomenclature, and that is not a matter for congratulation." It is just as well that he condescends to explain what' he means by "protogram," for, otherwise not even his fellow lexicographers could have understood him. It is mot a word in current use, nor is it in the dictionaries, nor does it carry its meaning on its face. . A protogram, says Dr. Vizetelly, is a -word made up from initial letters, such, as "uep" for "new economic policy" or "Socony,", meaning tie "Standard Oil Company of New York." The examples given serve very well for the purpose of illustration, bur are not otherwise happy. If "nep" has not found its way into any of the smaller Oxford dictionaries—it was, of course, coined too late for inclusion in the big one—the reason doubtless is that, though it is good Russian and likely to remain so, it has never been firmly established in current English, and with the obsolescence of the policy that it represents its claims to recognition become weaker every day. . "Socony" is not so easily disposed of. In New York and even in Chicago the abbreviation may well, be very convenient, but the rest of the English-speaking world has no use for it, and-for this reason the choice of the word for i the purpose of recommending art American dictionary in London was, to say the'least, unfortunate. It is, however, not the origin but the currency of a word that deter-1 mines its admissibility to a dictionary, and Dr. Vizetelly's "official recognition" does nothing for a familiar and fully recognised process of word-formation beyond giving it a new iiame. He may be right to admit "nep" and "Socony" to his dictionary, but what right has he to admit the word "protogram"? A lexicographer has as good a right as anybody else to coin a new word, but surely his own coinages have no better right to his "official recognition" than those of other people, and must first stand the same test. "Protograph," which is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a first or original writing," and is recognised by

the New Standard but not by Webster, is a good formation because it conveys its own meaning. "Piotogram," on the other hand, does not convey the faintest suggestion of the initials which are of the essence of the process that it is intended to represent. The meaning of "acrostic" is so familiar to everybody that the word "acrologue" or "aerogram" would have at once suggested initials to a large number, af any rate, even of those who know nothing of Greek. But the scholar is baffled as badly as anybody else by Dr. Vizetelly's invention. In order to establish our statement that what on the face of the cablegram looks like a new departure in lexicography is nothing more than the invention of a new word it is only necessary to turn to the 1923 edition of the New Standard Dictionary and read its treatment of what on this, side of the world is probably the most familiar of "protograms." The article is as follows:— Anzac—a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps engaged in the Great War of 1914-1918; a telescopic word. It is good to find the word "Anzac" recognised and clearly defined in one of the great American dictionaries. But from the dictionary's standpoint the addition of "telescopic word" is most unfortunate, for "telescope word" is identified I with "portmanteau word," which is itself defined as . a word composed of two distinct words; laa "chimpanzebra." . "Anzac," which represents the initials of five words, is defined j through these cross references as composed of two whole ones! The 1 "An" is recognisable, but there is no '"zac." ■- V. .■ -V- ■■ .-, Dr. Vizetelly has again been" unfortunate in the samples that he has coined for the benefit of the British public. After describing the philo-logists-r-presumably those of his own country only—as "impressed by the possibilities of the general protogrammatisation of the United States," he proceeds as follows: The whole campaign of the Republican Party—pardon me, ''Keparty"— could have been compressed into the. word "Pijarc" ("Prosperity is just around the corner"), to which the "Demparty" ("Democratic Party") could have replied, "Whae"? a telescopic word for "What comer1?" , But these sorry specimens are not genuine "protograms," like "Anzac" or "Dora" or "Ogpu." As they are both faked, they might be better described as "phakograms." The omission of a "t" and the addition of an "r" makes "pijarc" a double fake—a diplophake, let us say. No doubt the exact treatment of "what j corner?" was but "whac" is a mere botch. It may be admitted that even those "harmless drudges," as Johnson called the makers of dictionaries, must occasionally be allowed to unbend, but if they do it in public it should be I done with some skill. Neither as philologist nor as humorist does Dr. Vizetelly shine in this interview. A cobbler should stick to his last instead of talking through his hat.