Untitled

Evening Star, Issue 17920, 16 March 1922, Page 6

ENT, wait was the chief language spoken at tho Washington Conference. Tho French delegates, with historical reasons for disputing that supremacy, had the appearance of being outsiders from the first, it has been said, because they did not speak it. All the signs are that tho English, tongue is destined to become more and more a universal language. It should be the more fitted for that high role because it is by its composition, apart from its wide dispersion at tho present time, in a rare degree an international language. Just as the Empire itself has been made groat by a long sequence of conquests and discoveries, so tho vehicle of its ideas and thoughts has been enriched by spoils taken from all nations, now and old, as well ns by a national experience of unsurpassed variety. A new ‘pictionary of English Phrases,’ which has just been published, forms a collection of words and phrases, not excluding slang words, whoso origin is most generally forgotten at this time oven by Englishmen themselves. The terras and expressions selected for elucidation in this dictionary arc not such, for tho most part, as would bo apt to occur in treaties, or in the regular debates of an international conference. They would bo very likely to crop up, however, in the social conversations of such gatherings, which, indirectly, by tho atmosphere which they engender, can be as important as set speeches, and they are eloquent of tho richness of tho language. Tho increasing part which our English tongue is certain to play, moreover, as an influence throughout the world, makes now reason why its natural heirs should desire to know all that they can about it, and should Ire anxious to preserve it from degradation.

The Growth of English.

The derivations which this new dictionary records are not seldom surprising. “Not worth a twopenny damn” seems a simple phrase. It was suggested first, according to this authority, by “ an Indian coin, a dnm, which much depreciated in value.” It was the “ poor scholar,” no other, who first called a pawnbroker an “uncle,” with recollections of the Latin “uncus,” a hook on which pledges used to bo hung. Tho origin of “Go to Jericho” is disputed. Henry VIII. used a country placo called Jericho as a retreat, but a mors convincing explanation of the contemptuous injunction is that which derives it from King David’s order to certain people to go to Jericho, until their boards were grown. Tho metaphors and expressions which tho English language has taken from tho East, through tho Old and New Testament, must be almost sufficient to make a language of themselves. Great statesmen, as well as authors, of its own race have added to its richness. Not many know that 11 The Great Unwashed” was an inspiration of Burke’s, though Sir Georgo Grey has had full credit for his “ Unborn Millions.” But tho best gems of racy description—or at least tho greatest number of them —have corns from mute, inglorious Shakcspcarcs and Miltons, and would reveal an extensive history in themselves if tho real origin of raoro than a fraction of them could bo discovered. Tho word “ chaff,” meaning banter, takes a new importance when it is said to derive from “ a custom in tho North Midlands of emptying a sack of chaff at tho door of a man who ill-treats his wife, to indicate that thrashing is done there.” To “let tho cat ont of tho bag” is attributed to a custom of Celling cats in bags, falsely representing tho same to bo sucking pigs. Proverbial descriptions of drunkenness boar Bad witness to tho extraordinary popularity of that vice, transcending all barriers of class, in an earlier age. Wo have “ drunk ns a cobbler,” “drunk as a- fiddler,” “drunk as a lord,” “drunk as a pope,” “drunk as the devil,” and “drunk as a tinker at Banbury.” But who was the David who gave rise to “drunk as David’s sow”? That can hardly have been meant for a Biblical allusion. Tho suggestion is rnado that the expression relates to one David Lloyd, of Hereford, whoso wife was found drunk in a pigsty when ho took someone to see a sow ho owned. But that story may have been invented after the saying. Sad redactions must be prompted by tho great numbers of once vivid and poetical expressions which have lost their lustre, and become but featureless coins, as the result of too much usage. “To look for a needle in a bundle of hay,” “ to build on the sand,” “ to sponge,” “ to split hairs,” “to feather one’s nest,” occur as examp 1 " 'T’—- were beautiful in their lives, a... 1 ~ust of Cccsar, used to stop a hole, is not put now to lowlier purposes.

A fitting complement to this latent'■dictionary, of phrases for tho most part so old that their origin, and often their brightness, have been rendered obscure in tho antiquity of the language, would bo one that should show the now words, apart from mere scientific terms, that have been added to it in tho last fifty years. To some extent that is being done by a collection of war slang which is being made by Mr A. Forbes Sieveking, librarian of Hie Imperial War Museum, but the results, so iar as can be judged from progress reports, must be held disappointing. A list of forty “ most typical ” army slang expressions which another collector has given contains only one that deserves and is sure to bo perpetuated, and that is “go West.” It was an old instinct, strengthened no doubt by the associations of a beloved “ Blighty,” which made this phrase seem so natural to our soldiers at tho front.

Atlantis, the HespJridos, Hy Brasil, Avihon, all tho happy places whore mon have been wont to imagine rest after their lives’ long toil, have been in tho West, one with tho setting sun. The soldiers’ phrase never was slang, in any proper sense, though the slang of to-day, if it is good enough, may be to-morrow’s literature. It was an inspiration of pure poetry which deserves continuance. If the soldiers have not added many real words to tho language, it is not often that an author of

distinction gains such renown for himself. Lewis Carroll’s “chortle” and “burble” may bo henceforth indispensable, but it is only new movements and new discoveries for the most part that cause new words to be needed to describe them. The Americans have been most daring in their improvisations; but they are tho Goths of literature. The .additions which they would make to a wealthy language—words like “finalise,’ ’ for “complete,” and “ motivisation ” —are not needed hy it. The language, which is a living thing and not a dead one, must continue to bo added to in future ns it has been in the past. But the test for the admission of new words to such a noble company must he their For graceless w-ould-bo interlopers, anxious only to push out ■their betters, the sentence ox its true guar-

Tee safety which is supposed to lio in

A Remarkable Case.

hotting after the event iVas presumed on much too far by thft Pm fifth Armv aF*

tile JuTitxsii Army oi* fleer and his wife who made a trade of defrauding bookmakers' in that manner. Sentenced to twelve mouths’ imprisonment, Captain Pool will hnvo time now for reflecting on the limitations of the proverb. I'ho practice which these shady. persons of fashion pursued was tho more contemptible since it was not even suggested by financial embarrassment. It might seem incredible that the trick which they employed should succeed at all, except by special fortune; but it is possible that it has even been worked in tho past on bookmakers in New Zealand, without tho assistance of a postmaster ready to antedate tho times of telegrams, which tho Peels were suspected to have enjoyed. Their victims were not inclined to ask unpleasant questions so long as they were not called upon to pay out too much, because the bright pair who defrauded them had a value in introducing other and more profitable clients to them. English bookmakers will be more careful in tho future, and ns, in tho law’s eyes at all events, there are no bookmakers now in New Zealand, tho imposture would have less c'hanco of being practised successfully here,

Tho facts of this case, however, astonishing as they were, must have less interest for the public than tho legal distinction which caused the safety in wrongdoing in which Captain Pool was disappointed to bo enjoyed in full measure by Ids wife. It was argued by counsel for tho accused! that, though her husband had pleaded guilty, Mrs Peel could not bo convicted for tho frauds which boro her signature, because, since she acted in his presence, it was a maxim of the law that she acted under Ids coercion. Authorities were quoted to show that since tho time of Ina, King of tho West Saxons, that had been tho preemption of tho law. Tho reply of Mr Justice Darling in effect was that if it had to bo recognised at tho present day it was a, foolish presumption. In King Ina’s time, and for a long while afterwards, husbands controlled their wives, to tho extent of beating them, with the law’s approval; but a wife in those days tended to bo very much, a free agent. Against a husband who heat her sho would bo protected by the court. It was evidently the learned judge’s opinion that, if tho law still presumed tho ascendancy of tho husband when it had. ceaeed to exist, and only when such presumption would operate to tho wife s advantage, tho law was inequitable, and, as Mr Bumble would have said, “ a base.” Ho could only agree, however, that counsel’s contention of coercion was sound in law, however ridiculous it might ho in fact. By virtue of a legal myth that, in performing a crime in the presence of her husband, sho could not possibly have exorcised, her own will, Mrs Peel was discharged, and showed her appreciation of tho fine chivalry of tho lav;—though it was anything hut chivalry in its origin—by “ tripping of tho dock with a happy smile,” which wo must hope had to yield to a very different expression when sho heard her husband’s sentence. True Is it, as Mr Dooley has pronounced, that “woman’s rights” are a small consideration compared with tho privileges which she enjoys. Enlightened women leaders, whoso cry has been for one law tho same in its application to both sexes, should be eager to sweep away this distinction of barbarism, which a woman criminal might have cause to bless. It is not to be supposed, however, that, in working for its abolition, they would not find other distinctions, more numerous in British than in New Zealand law, which operate to the woman’s disadvantage.