Bad Words.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14074, 4 December 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

Bad Words.

ERRORS IN WRITING. We all know, says an. article in the London "Times," what is meant by bad words in a- tract. They are wards which some people use to express had temper; others to show that they are no Puritans; and others again because thev are their only means of emphasis, "or from mere habit. 'But all know that these are bad words when they use them. The bad words of which we wish to speak are not known to be bad by those who use them; indeed, they are used because they arc thought to be good words and to express romance or humour of profundity of thought. That is often the very reason why they are bad, for single words cannot express such things, and to use them with such a purpose is to overstrain them. Take, for instance, the word "gloaming." It is an. old word, and no doubt was once good enough. But it lias been so much used to express sentimental feelings about twilight that it would be difficult now for any one to use it without suggesting sentimental associations. It has been overworked, because it has been supposed to make poetry by itself; and thus it gives a jaded air to any sentence that -\ contains it. There are many other words' that are or have been misused in the same way. They have a short vogue and then lose it, so that the use of them soon . becomes the mark of a writer who does not care how lie writes and usually has nothing in particular to say.

But there is another kind of bad word which has a much longer vogue and much more mischievous effects. That is the metaphysical word, which may have a precise meaning for a trained metaphysician, but which to most people is merely a symbol of things, which they do not clearly understand. The worst examples of this kind of word are "objective" and "subjective." "Absolute" and "relative" are not much better. Nowadays any writer who uses " objective" and "subjective" is to bo distrusted, for the chances are that ho is trying to evade a difficult passage of thought. That is the worst of words such as these, which are supposed to contain a mass of profound meaning in themselves. Just as the word "gloaming" can persuade some writers that they are making poetry when they are not, so the word " objective" and "subjective" can persuado others that they are thinking when they are not. The vice is of the same, nature iti both cases. Words are strained to do the work of sentences, and in the progress they liypnoti.se the users of them into thinking that Jiehas done what he lias not done. They make writing easy and /eadiug hard, at least for those who prefer to know the meaning of what the.y read. For there is, of course, a class of readers, as of writers, who liko to jiersuade themselves that they are. thinking profoundly when they are not thinking at al). For thesje. "objective" [and "subjective," and "relative" and "absolute," are huge cloudy 'symbols of high romance*,' and have taken the place of those theological words and phrases for which men once shed blood all the more readily becauso they could not understand them. There is only ono way of escaping the slavery of words, and that is to know exactly what they mean.. The man who does this is their master -. and even if he has, therefore, a. small vocabulary, it is better to bo the master of a few word's than the slave of many. Nearly all the vices of writing come from the writer's desire to make himself out different from what he is, an' 1

usually from his pretence that ho has something to say when ho has nothing. The main difficulty of a, writer is, and always has been, to get something to say, sometliing that is clear ■enough iu his mind to be said precisely in words. Writers who cannot surmount this difficulty fall into all the vices of style; and in particular they try to make words do the work of thought or emotion. Every writer, even the best, is liable to be tempted by words, for they arc always lying in wait for his. weariness or laziness, always offering to do what they cannot do; and f that is. the reason why many good writers love best the plain unpretending words which can deceive no one about their meaning, not even tho man who uses them.