A New Word

Northern Advocate, 26 May 1938, Page 14

A New Word

Science has never been satisfied with the vocabulary of the man in the street, says the “News Chronicle.” It is not merely that the scientist has to invent long now words for his discoveries, he often quarrels with quite short words; and the latest word to be criticised is “or.” It has been decided that “or” is such a confusing word that a new one must be added to the English language to prevent dangerous mistakes. Take the sentence, “grenadine is a fabric of open texture made in gauze or leno weave.” Are you perfectly sure that you know what it means? Dees it mean that grenadine is made either of something called gauze or of something else called leno weave? Or does it mean that grenadine is made of something that is either called gauze or called leno weave? The hard word is not grenadine and it is not leno weave, for you can and cut frem a textile dictionary what these are. The hard word is “or.” because it might mean either of two quite different things. For this reason some scientists are advocating the introduction of a new word “idest,” to be used for one of the two meanings fer which “or” is at present used indiscriminately. Then the sentence quoted above will read “gauze or leno weave” if it means the first of our two suggestions and “gauze idest leno weave” if it means the second. If the scientist has his way, we shall hear the following at the Zoo in the future:— “Mummie, is that a lion idest

tiger ” “Lion or tiger,, darling.” “Mummie, this cage ■ contains members of the genus felis or cat.” “Felis idest cat, darling.”